LETÍCIA CARVALHO 

a boat

is also a measure of distance

1wish

2wishes

3wishes

4wishes

5thousandwishes

to abandon this ship.

chrome yellow

Van Gogh chewed on sunflowers

so that he could paint the ideal

yellow

it’s odd because so many things

are yellow and more edible

than a sunflower

Van Gogh’s yellow

got lost and there’s no way

to see the glow there was before

in his paintings

I’ll never understand

why Van Gogh

chewed on sunflowers

maybe he liked

the sound

maybe it helped him

concentrate

I concentrate

on the color of your hair

on your legs entwined in the sun

there are few things more beautiful

and more chewable than Van Gogh’s

yellow.

translated by Sarah Rebecca Kersley

Letícia Carvalho (Barreiras, Bahia, Brazil, 1994) is a Brazilian poet and teacher who holds a literature degree from the Federal University of Bahia. Her first poetry collection eu devia ter visto isso chegando [I should have seen this coming] was published in Brazil by paralelo13S in 2020. Currently, she is studying nutrition.

Sarah Rebecca Kersley is a translator, poet, and editor, originally from the UK and based in Brazil for over a decade. Her work has appeared in places such as Denver Quarterly, Best Small Fictions, Isele Magazine, and elsewhere. She is the author of two books published in Brazil and she co-runs Livraria Boto-cor-de-rosa, an independent bookshop and small press focused on contemporary literature, in the city of Salvador, where she is based.