Rufo Quintavalle | The Forest

The Forest

Out in the forest
I opened my heart;
all I had ever done
was there
and I looked on it
and felt no shame:

the profit and loss,
my crooked belonging,
the time my people
came for rubber,
the time we dug
the earth
for salts.

There in the forest
I opened my heart,
it was silent
and I laid it
like a rat
in wet leaves.

Where is Abdennour,
servant of light?
Where is the Christ-like
Lucifer?

Here in the darkness
the earth
smells sweet;

I will stay
in this kingdom
of water
forever.

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Rufo Quintavalle was born in London, studied at Oxford and the University of Iowa, and lives in Paris. He is the author of nine books of poetry. His latest collection, Shelf, will be published later in 2020 by Sagging Meniscus Press, New Jersey. He used to run the reading series Poets Live, and for several years, taught creative writing at NYU Paris. He is co-creator and lead actor in an innovative film and poetry project called Coldhearts: A Poetical, shot in Paris last year, for release this summer 2020.