Straw-Cinar & Silva – August 2018

Lito Silva and Maria Straw-Cinar traded art and words. Lito shared this painting titled “Nossa Danca,” with Maria:

In response, Maria wrote this poem:

Nossa Danca

Semi-quavers quiver
bent-double
on the dancefloor,
tender is the night,
moonlit bodies bob
with the current,
treble cleft hearts
spin solo, all souls
now one –

punctuated movement,
semi-colonials of the night’s
exclamations, abbreviations –

a ricochet of notes
slip slyly away
from the saxophone’s
crushed crescendos –
midnight’s ellipsis…
bodies curve
quotation marks
leaning towards their
future

* * * * *

Maria shared this poem with Lito:

Roots of Love

Pushing down into forever
embedded in the soil’s soul
rooted in histories of love
We are made from clay
the earth creaks as your love shifts
planets collide to the sound of your kiss
where does it come from?

You give me edible glitter made of stars
awakening spasms of spangled dust
silver-swarm fallout
(ashes) lain dormant for years
We are magnificent

Splayed and slopped in the dirt
we root our pleasure into perfect skin
and bones, set in stone
like two muddied gods
wrestling in the dark
bloodhounds of love
listening to the earth’s beating heart
We are magnificent

Searing of the roots
earthquakes shake us –
Mercury forces us back
erases the oceans,
ravages the forests
the mad moon is pulling
the roots from the trees.

We were once magnificent.

In response, Lito made this painting, titled “The Roots of Love”: