
Meu Brasil
There was always sand somewhere in the house on the floor, in the bed, in the turn of a shirt windows open long after dark somebody singing low from the kitchen and nobody in a hurry to leave I came from a life of locking things up buttons done high, watch always on then all at once there were bare feet on tile salt on my arms and the night coming in soft from the sea Someone kept laughing from out in the yard glasses touched somewhere just out of sight I didn’t know half of what people were saying still I could feel it — the room had a way of making you stay I still hear the house at evening windows open, somebody sings salt on my shirt from the day before sand still turning up in things And I don’t know how to say it right without making too much of what it was but some part of me stayed in Brazil and some part of Brazil stayed with us By then I knew the sound of the front gate the fan overhead and the kettle at dawn your voice in the next room, half in Portuguese half in a melody I couldn’t follow even when I missed every word Mornings came in through the thin white curtains green after rain, light laid across the floor coffee, cut fruit, somebody humming my shirt still carrying salt from the day before You showed me little things without trying — how to let silence sit how to stay long at the table how to hear sadness and laughter living side by side in the same breath I still hear the house at evening windows open, somebody sings salt on my shirt from the day before sand still turning up in things And I don’t know how to say it right without making too much of what it was but some part of me stayed in Brazil and some part of Brazil stayed with us Teu nome ficou na casa no sal, na madeira, no ar eu canto baixinho na cozinha como quem chama sem chamar Ficou na janela aberta na roupa secando ao sol na luz depois da chuva no verde depois do calor Meu bem, se a vida te leva guarda o mar no teu peito quem viveu amor no Brasil nunca vai embora por inteiro I still hear the house at evening windows open, somebody sings salt on my shirt from the day before sand still turning up in things And I don’t know how to say it right without making too much of what it was but some part of me stayed in Brazil and some part of Brazil stayed with us There was always sand somewhere in the house windows open long after dark somebody singing low from the kitchen Meu Brasil

