The Pilgrimage
My Twenty-Five Years in a Quadrennium
For Renee
I toiled for twelve years to prepare—
I’ll labour on for seven more—
O Cafuné, what an affair!
I toiled for twelve years to prepare
a simulacrum of despair,
a limerence, and to adore.
I toiled for twelve years to prepare:
I’ll labour on for seven more.
I’ll labour on for seven more—
O Cafuné, what an affair!
I toiled for twelve years to prepare
a simulacrum of despair,
a limerence, and to adore.
I toiled for twelve years to prepare:
I’ll labour on for seven more.
Editor’s Notes
- This is the poet’s first attempt at a triolet.
- Cafuné is a Brazilian Portuguese term for the act of tenderly running one’s fingers through a loved one’s hair as an intimate gesture of affection and care. Here, the word O may be interpreted as the Portuguese definite article (“the”); as the English interjection; or both.
- The dek is a play on Robert Benchley’s My Ten Years in a Quandary, and How They Grew, hinting at a possible discrepancy in the narrator’s expected versus actual time and effort expended on various pursuits.
Further Reading
- Jane Borthwick, “Come, Labor On”
- Anthony de Mello, The Way to Love
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