saint marcel

from espèce

Translated by Nathanaël

Note: “Saint-marcel” comes from “fluides” (fluids), a series of poems that follows the redirected coastal river, the Huveaune, which originates in the massif of Sainte Baume and empties at Marseille. Its polluted waters are redirected away from the beaches in the vicinity of its mouth and emptied into the Cortiou Calanque. ]

 

they are not the only ones     to mourn the dead

brambles too     carry grief

what do they think

stones have knowledge of terms

and fruits darken

lovers succumb at their feet

in the copse     with the dormouse       sometimes a gilt

the shrub detaches from its livid flowers

we pick all the black fruit

the plastic bag is full of them.

they overflow       my passport bloodies

we go around    from behind   along the

rail line

not far from the station     where the vintimille train

no longer stops

crossing the river      we recognize the furniture

the wicker armchair     and the low table

they didn’t have time to take them

further along the bridge crosses nothing

the water    carries rubble

here     the river ceases     to resemble itself

the lizard joins us     we walk upstream

toward the center

he follows us     his eyes are the eyes of birds

like them    when we want to seize it    pick it

amputate it      it flees

the body is safe

however the tail      will only grow back

once

 
Frédérique Guétat-Liviani

Born in Grenoble in 1963, Frédérique Guétat-Liviani makes installations that speak of languages, and writes texts that she builds like images. A founding member of the artists’ collective Intime Conviction (1988–94), she is now the publisher of Fidel Anthelme x. The author of several collections of poetry, she is of the caste neither of poets nor of artists. Instead, she inhabits a space in-between. She lives in Marseille.

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