The Savage Islands

creeping forth over our own tongues
across the last remaining vestiges of sea froth
before the shore
we spied our prize
URSELLAM!
URSELLAM!
the leafy red gold!
to paint our hands red.
to paint our feet red.
to paint our faces. red.
ursellam must be laid symmetrically
leaf by leaf
across the bridge of a stone nose
then the nádegas pedra
must be brought down over it
and ground
until the nose face cries
tears of paint

we also gather Barilla weeds and
shells and mollusks
to decorate
our fibrous porous bodies
in Catalonia we trade our
glass warts for glass
and we are made all over of glass
and Barilla weeds in Catalonia

in Catalonia and Madeira
our bloodnoses are fitted
with soft manta horn
as we creep over our own tongues
and even as we scrape the living paint
from the cleft of the nádegas pedra