Bloody slow fugitive

hiding stars under its light

unrealistic sun

speedy cloud absent in a few time

sadness you bring and don't take away

daybreak breeze

what strange things you say

almost forgotten but always flying

swallows in my grass roof

bloody slow fugitive

sun hides what night brings.

(to read the original Portuguese version click on the figure)

In the eyes I look for youth

grace smile desire

in the hands I look for poisonous veins

blue strong sinuous

and in the wrists the steadiness of trees

slim straight haughty

in the arms the striped muscles

as snakes

in the legs the unbreakable base

solid foundations

of the men I am looking for

and with them

I want to laugh against solitude

run ever run

and breath invented joys.

by Armando TABORDA, in monthly magazine "AZIMUTE", edited by the Portuguese Infantry School, 1968

and in "MANUAL DO DESPERDÍCIO", Ceres Editora, 1994

(post 1st edition, 2010; 2nd edition, 2016; 3rd edition, 2023)