“Balancete” by José Paulo Paes

Balance Sheet

Hope: a flower
dried but (chance
or precaution?) saved
between the pages of a book.

Uncertainty: the cold
of a knife cutting
the daily orange
into smaller and smaller portions.

Love: the pulse
of a blocked artery
through which the blood insists
on flowing.

Death: a corner
yet to be turned
when the joy of turning them
has been almost forgotten.

From Prosas seguidas de Odes Mínimas”(“Prose followed by Minimum Odes”) by José Paulo Paes (1926-1998). This poem comes from the “prose” section of the book, which is actually a series of poems, some of which might be called “prose poems” but mostly consists of more typical poems. He explains this in the section’s dedication “To the memory of Fernando Góes, who once titled one of his books of stories ‘Poems.’”