~ Jorge de Lima
 

Poem of Any Virgin ~

The generations of the virgin are tattooed on her unblemished belly,
for the virgin represents all that is to be.
Rainbows are tattooed on her hands, Towers of Babel on her arms.
The virgin's body is tattooed by God because she is the source of the
    world to be.
There is not a particle of her body without designs and future plans.
Not a pore is without tattooing: that is why the virgin is so beautiful.
Come, let us read the virgin, let us learn the future: note that the
    tattooings are not
mere adornments, O men of little sight.  See, there are tattooings within
tattooings, there are generations issuing from generations.
Who tattooed the virgin?  It was God on the day of the Fall.
See the serpent tattooed on her.  See the angel tattooed on her.  See the
    Cross tattooed on her.  Look, gentlemen, there is nothing to pay, This
    is the supreme spectacle, gentlemen.  I will explain the mysteries, the
    symbolical letters even to omega.  Come and see the marvelous work
    etched on the virgin's body: the history of the world, the inhabited
    stratosphere, the magician Tim-Ka-Lu taking a journey in the moon.
    For the virgin is marvelous and contains everything.  Come, gentlemen,
    there is nothing to pay.  The image of innocence, of lust, of crime, of
    goodness, all these incredible pictures are on the virgin's back, on her
    neck, on her face.  Disorders are about to issue from the tattooings.  The
    moment is extremely grave, gentlemen.  Great revolts are in the making.
    There is a sea tattooed on the virgin, with the seven days of creation,
    with the flood, with death.  Come, gentlemen, there is no admission
    to pay.
Gentlemen, today there is a spectacle on Earth.
Come and see the virgin, the tattooed virgin, the virgin tattooed by God.
She is naked and at the same time clothed with tattooings.
Gentlemen, the virgin is going to be on show for ages.
There are prognostications in the tattooings, there are poems, there are
    mysteries.
That is why the show is pretty.  That is why the virgin attracts you.
Come, gentlemen!



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