Journey Into A Brother's Interior

Journey into a Brother's Interior I step into my brother Look out at his world through his eyes. The interior of his skull is cluttered with Toco toucans, anteaters, three toed sloths Piranhas, capybaras, armadillos Yacara caiman crocodiles, pumas, mackaws, Poison dart frogs, anacondas, Jaguars and golden lion tamarins His ears are filled with: The chatter of Portuguese. The babble of the favelas The background ripple of the river Amazon The patter of rain from the rainforest The scraps of indigenous Native speech and flutes The sound of his clavichord as he plays Renaissance music Far, far away, down the echoes of his mind Is the speech of Doric and English The clatter of feet on cobblestones But these come from another time A long forgotten place beyond the seas He has lived so long in Sao Paulo, He dreams in Portuguese. He lives with a Brazilian woman They make music together as others make children He stays with the constant presence of Leprosy, malaria, yellow fever Parasitic infection, rabies, typhoid Dengue fever, meningitis Tuberculosis, snake bites We, his family, seen from behind his telescope Must seem as irrelevant as ants, as inconsequential