Nymphs by Leticia Toraci

Music scattered in the wind.

Lace in the water.

Exotic trees, cradles of ferns.

Thin stalks of non-existent coconut-palms.

Almost unthinkable ways among treetops.

Minute and mighty life,

Multiple in its magic.

Little blue frogs

And all frailty of the beings of a small balanced Earth

A seed’s smile in the palm of a closed hand

As the green pulse of struggle receives the heat of the sun.

I keep silent.

Hiding me in myself.

I turn into a closed leaf,

Unknown species,

Minute and unnoticed,

In the heart of the forest.

Bio

Leticia Toraci is a Brazilian freelance writer, poet and artist who lives with her husband, her two sons and a moody cat in South Germany. She has a degree in Master of Food Science from the University of Reading, England. As a child, she won an Honorable Mention for two of her short stories in the Sao Paulo Public Servants Contest in 1986. She participated in theater in Campo Mourao, Brazil, where she recited several of her poems. She has also had art exhibits in Regensburg, Aschaffenburg and Munich, Germany. Together with other authors, she has published three short stories in three anthologies: The Dragon's Rocketship Presents: The Ship's Log, Sins of the Future (Sins of Time #2), and Writers in Lockdown.

Author's note

I wrote the first version of Nymphs in 1993 after an extremely messy break up and years of emotional turmoil. I was travelling between Belém and Salinas and the beauty of nature enchanted me in a very profound way. This poem talks about introspection and the power of nature to heal and balance humans, because nature is, in its original state, balanced, even to a very minute scale.