porcelain plates the best cutlery
black cast-iron pan
of farofa with dried shrimp I free the cuts of manioc
from their pale starched water
fill maroonish feijoada
into handmade persian bowls burgundy candles
light up crystal shot glasses
in them batida de limão
my face long red with its liveliness
high noon
I’ve set the table for my aunt
she greets me
with all the elegance of a mãe-de-santo
in her white clinic gown her freshly
shorn white hair
precise spectacles like
woodcut-lines around
her eyes cowrie shells
generous and rich
and full of futures
the incandescence of her
motherly smile is out of place
in my grimey kitchen no place
for anything saintly
we eat and drink and eat and drink
feed ourselves for multiple
months of rain
until she bursts open
kaleidoscope of greens and blues
birthed from her arched back sudden feathers
strong filaments
solid black beak
bullet hole eyes
the windows creak
as I open them white lacquer flakes off
spring’s humid hot air invites
like a familial embrace
in absence of hesitation
this great macaw takes flight
then is gone to meet tropical suns
I close the windows
and start to clean up
porcelain plates the best cutlery
The above poem is part of a series called ‘Tropicalist Sequence’ and was written in
2021/2022. It describes my experiences as a mixed race person living between cultures
(namedly german and afro-brazilian) and it explores rituals, real and fictional, of brazilian
culture, drawing on things like Candomble (a religion developed by african enslaved
people) and Capoeira (the dance-fight-game). ‘Elegy’ was written for my late aunt, who
died of covid, which had a grave and rapid development in brazil in the early days of the
pandemic due to governmental neglect.
Leon Oranian (1999*) grew up in Berlin, Germany and is active there as Musician and
Writer. Child of a german mother and an afro-brazilian father his writing explores how
one’s roots influence identity and how collective trauma shapes individuals. 2022
Prizewinner of the ‘Treffen junger Autoren’, a nation-wide german competition for young
authors. Outside of writing he’s a guitarist and bassist in various bands.
