Hélder Faife
Hélder Faife was born in Maputo, Mozambique, in 1974. He is the author of several poetry collections, incuding Desdenhos (Cavalo do Mar, 2017), Contos de fuga (A2 Design, 2010), and Poemas em sacos vazios que ficam de pé (A2 Design, 2010)—both winners of the Concurso Literário da empresa Telecominicações de Moçambique. A member of the Mozambique Writers Association, he lives in Maputo. Source
Punctuation
Translated by Sandra Tamele and Eric M. B. Becker
Without commas in her gaze,
the little girl dribbles colons with each breath
and swears an exclamation mark
is a lollipop:
“Is growing up for real or make-believe?”
Dot dot dot, I gasped.
A question mark is a fisherman’s hook.
I’d taken the bait of uncertainty,
when she offered me as consolation,
wrapped in quotation marks, a single Smartie.
Published:
2019
Length:
Shorty
Literary Movements:
Contemporary
Anthology Years:
2023
Themes:
Ars Poetica
Childhood & Coming of Age
Education & Learning
Literary Devices:
Dialogue
conversation between two or more people as a feature of a book, play, or movie
Metaphor
a comparison between two unrelated things through a shared characteristic