from As Long As Trees Take Root in the Earth and Other Poems
This piece by Alain Mabancko is translated by Nancy Naomi Carlson here’s where the tree will tell us the depth of the groundthe rooting of our dreams the muffling of our dead from packing the agesdown to the dawns of used-up days the house is half-crumbled the roof destroyedby the windsbut nighttime shadows look after …