{"id":28848,"date":"2019-09-30T17:54:44","date_gmt":"2019-09-30T21:54:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/?p=28848"},"modified":"2019-10-23T21:09:24","modified_gmt":"2019-10-24T01:09:24","slug":"a-conversation-between-the-embalmed-heads-of-lampiao-and-maria-bonita-on-public-display-at-the-baiano-state-forensic-institute-circa-mid-20th-century","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/poetry\/a-conversation-between-the-embalmed-heads-of-lampiao-and-maria-bonita-on-public-display-at-the-baiano-state-forensic-institute-circa-mid-20th-century\/","title":{"rendered":"A Conversation Between the Embalmed Heads of Lampi\u00e3o and Maria Bonita on Public Display at the Baiano State Forensic Institute, Circa Mid-20th Century"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\nfunction showWarning_enUS() {\n    var content_warning_list = document.getElementById(\"content-warning-enUS\");\n\n    if (content_warning_list.style.display === \"none\") {\n        content_warning_list.style.display = \"block\";\n    } else {\n        content_warning_list.style.display = \"none\";\n    }\n}\n<\/script><div lang=\"en-US\" dir=\"ltr\" class=\"content-warning-container-ltr\"><p><strong class=\"content-warning-title\">Content warning:<\/strong><br\/><button onclick=\"showWarning_enUS()\">Show warnings<\/button><\/p><div class=\"content-warning\" id=\"content-warning-enUS\" style=\"display: none;\" ><p>This page contains: <\/p><ul><li>No content warnings<\/li><\/ul><\/div><br\/><\/div><br \/>\nPerhaps what I miss most,<br \/>\n<em>meu amor<\/em>, is the way your eyes would glimmer<br \/>\nin the guiding light of my Winchester. These marbles forced<br \/>\ninto your skull are a poor excuse for the deathly precision<br \/>\nof your iris at the edge of a barrel. Your beauty a bullet<br \/>\nnot even lamplight could catch, though I would spend<br \/>\nthe rest of this eternal sleep galloping after it,<br \/>\nif only to catch a glimpse of the darkness<br \/>\nin your pupils.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right\">But what is there to catch?<br \/>\nFor even in death I have never left your side.<br \/>\nYou sound as if you were some <em>macaco<\/em><br \/>\ncourting flames as they dance <em>a xaxado<\/em><br \/>\nbut you of all people should know<br \/>\nthe cost of singed palm<br \/>\nand empty fist.<\/p>\n<p>I know of but one cost and that is you, <em>bela<\/em>.<br \/>\nTo be by your side in this place is little more than a cruel joke<br \/>\nwhen once I had given you <em>a sert\u00e3o<\/em> as your wedding ring<br \/>\nand <em>a caatinga<\/em> as your bridal price. What love<br \/>\nis there to be bought here with our lips empty<br \/>\nand our necks sewn like a purse?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right\">Had not this tongue been taken<br \/>\nI would sing you the songs of our memory.<br \/>\nLet you listen to the sweet tones of glory<br \/>\nas they serenade the ghosts of our adversaries<br \/>\nlike a shrill Lugar\u2019s whistle.<\/p>\n<p>Tell me, what glory is there in a headless man?<br \/>\nWhose body rots while all above the neck persists<br \/>\nonly for the amusement of those passing by? Do you not see<br \/>\nhow they mock us with outstretched arm and bucktoothed smile?<br \/>\nHow they call us criminal? There is no remembrance<br \/>\nof our deeds. Only the bloated excess<br \/>\nof our deformed features.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right\">It is true that these bodies<br \/>\nare ephemeral, but is there not power in a man<br \/>\nwho resists long after his final breath has slowed?<br \/>\nOur names echo through the ridges of <em>a Serra do Araripe<\/em> down<br \/>\nthrough all the saints\u2019 isles. What is loyalty worth in life<br \/>\nif you cannot capture their hearts in death?<\/p>\n<p>Hearts are only worth as much<br \/>\nas the <em>coronel<\/em>\u2019s nickel or as much credit as lead can buy.<br \/>\nIs that not what my father learned when his credit came due?<br \/>\nIs that not how we found ourselves <em>cangaceiros<\/em>, a band of debtors<br \/>\nwho refused to pay by the rules they enslaved us with?<br \/>\nYet, even now we seem to pay with each daily<br \/>\nrepetition of this grotesque performance.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right\">And what greater reverence for a <em>cangaceiro<\/em> is there?<br \/>\nTo crucify yourself at the hands of Judas<br \/>\nso that the legend of your defiance can ring true.<br \/>\nIf you cannot rest peacefully with that<br \/>\ndo you even know what it is<br \/>\nyou died for?<\/p>\n<br class=\"clear_both\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>is there not power in a man who resists long after his final breath has slowed?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[730],"class_list":["post-28848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","tag-no-content-warning"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p82q22-7vi","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28848"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29497,"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28848\/revisions\/29497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}