from “When the Rooster Announces the Dawn of Another Day”

Alain Mabanckou

^{translated by Nancy Naomi Carlson}

god turns his back on us

how to interpret
the tablet of laws
translate the portent
of night

for all was already transcribed

*

I’m not to blame
said the migratory bird
I was gone for the winter
my only crime
is to sport the same
plumage as those in my branch

nonetheless
the birds of your kind
have sinned in your name

*

one day the moon lodged a complaint
it was heard by the darkness

but the day erased the grievance of the moon

ever since
we have lost our memory

Copyright © 2022 by Alain Mabanckou and Nancy Naomi Carlson. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on June 6, 2022, by the Academy of American Poets.