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Go shopping[ at eleven years old ]
at eleven years old
behind my grandmother’s house
in fishing village z-3
i smoked a gol cigarette bought
singly in a boteco
where the salesgirl knew my mother
the salesgirl looked at me sideways
but gave me the cigarette all the same
and there in the kitchen garden
my sister a cousin and i
took our first puffs
it was really bad
fear kicked the joy
out of the five-centavo gol
that one of us flicked away
at the sound of an aunt a dog or
the wind through the collard greens
the goldmine of my mum & my aunt
it was called
administration island
or middle island
where the two of them sold
avon cosmetics
arriving by motor boat
with bundles of products
lipstick mascara perfume
and most of all rouge
they were received
by big-haired moustachioed
housewives
dishcloths on their shoulders
snotty children in their laps
my mum & my aunt proceeded
with the beautifying of the natives
restoring colour
to their faces
the whole spectrum of colours
of an evening sky
at lagoa dos patos
blues and purples and oranges and pinks
then they lent them
mirrors
the housewives of middle island
bought a lot of makeup
my mum & my aunt
left loaded with cash
Written by Angélica Freitas and translated by Hilary Kaplan.
Angélica Freitas (b. 1973) is the author of Rilke Shake (2007). She co-edits the poetry journal Modo de Usar & Co. and lives in Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
Poet and translator Hilary Kaplan received a 2011 PEN Translation Fund grant for her translation of Rilke Shake. Her translations appear in PEN America, World Literature Today, Rattapallax and Two Lines. She is completing her PhD on contemporary poetics and environmental culture at Brown University.
