They say the first
letter of my name evolved
  from a picture of a
                                          carcass
a cabeça de vaca
    sem as suas costelas
expostas like claws
    or jaws ancient
                                      my
neighbor says not to
  let my son sleep
on my bed but I do
                                         I
    know the terror
  at night we're haunted
    by my great great great
                                                    grand-
  parents dry on cracked
  soil beating in the cold
of my feet na Bahia in the
                                                        bones
    they inhabit on my bed
  In America, I learned
    that arroyos are
                                      paths
  carved by the rain
    but I already knew
                                            at
  night the cracked soil
    calls for me, as
                                    cabeças
  de vaca of my greats
    calling and calling
                                              I
    tell them I don’t
        know you, but I
                                        do

_______________________

the city’s spine
  is a split bifurcation
solidified in calcium
                                             in
    America they
eat the bagasse of
    oranges and say my
                                               name
means bliss I am
  in love with bone white
concrete, the spine of the
                                                       city
sits fleshless and free
     of scales flexible bones
that can bend and bend
                                                    and
  keep bending and keep
bending and bending
  bending right up until they
                                                             snap

After Nathaniel Mackey
and Caetano Veloso