in translation – a poem by Christianna Soumakis

in translation

To translate pila or pilón
the internet suggests 
everything from trough to cistern
Something      in between


Hiking through Portugal
I stop by one of them      heatstruck
Overhead      a rock-niched Virgin perches
pietá from her seam in the stone
above the pila’s stream

Summer noon
Empty town

		Watermusic 
		salts the silence

I dunk my arms elbow deep 
into this inland sea
found as a poem
sweat-desperate
uncareful 

		Lord     here
		my prayer 

plunged 
untranslated 
manger-deep
spit-blue syllables
unsanitized

Christianna Soumakis, MFA, is an artist, writer, art instructor, and pilgrim. She is an introvert who loves people, is a two-time Pushcart Nominee, and has walked the Camino de Santiago three times, for a total of 1,380 miles on foot. She lives in New York.