beloved of the rivers

.

Beloved of the rivers, beset
by azure water and transparent drops,

like a tree of veins your spectre

of dark goddess biting apples:

and then awakening naked

to be tattooed by the rivers,

and in the wet heights your head

filled the world with new dew.

Water rose to your waist,

You are made of wellsprings

and lakes shone on your forehead.

From your sources of density you drew

water like vital tears

and hauled the river-beds to the sand

across the planetary night,

crossing rough, dilated stone,

breaking down on the way

all the salt of geology,

cutting through forests of compact walls

dislodging the muscles of quartz.


—Pablo Neruda

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