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BRANDING
http://www.maverickmagazine.com/articles/134/1/BRANDING/Page1.html
Elide V. Oliver
Elide V. Oliver professes Brazilian Literature and Writing in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis USA. Her recent publications include a review of Fernando Pessoa and Co., Selected Poems by Fernando Pessoa, translated by Richard Zennith and Portuguese Literary & Cultural Studies, published by the Center for Portuguese Studies and Culture. University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, as well as The Third Bank of the River. Time-flow and Paternity in João Guimarães Rosa (with reflections on Carlos Drummond de Andrade and James Joyce), published by The Modern Humanities Research Association, Portuguese Studies, London.
 
By Elide V. Oliver
Published on 11/16/2001
 

        Robbers, slaves and runaways,
        Toilers in the mines, convicts condemned
        Disfigured faces until Constantine
        forbade the hot iron on hands
        or arms. Vagabonds with large Vs, Fs
        for fray makers, Rs for rouges;
        From R to 'slave' on cheek or
        forehead, as Cain without Cain's
        wrath, wrath with wrath,


        Robbers, slaves and runaways,
        Toilers in the mines, convicts condemned
        Disfigured faces until Constantine
        forbade the hot iron on hands
        or arms. Vagabonds with large Vs, Fs
        for fray makers, Rs for rouges;
        From R to 'slave' on cheek or
        forehead, as Cain without Cain's
        wrath, wrath with wrath,
        God's endorsement; cement bonding
        a wall of inscriptions, an alphabet
        of Ire, brother
        against brother, how I wish
        a random thunderbolt would crash
        and crush the tower and destroy us all!

Copyright © Elide Valarini Oliver, 2001.  All Rights Reserved.