{"id":103207,"date":"2024-06-28T16:59:08","date_gmt":"2024-06-28T14:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.acosopov.com\/reading-room\/poetry-shelf\/%d0%bf%d1%80%d0%b5%d0%b4-%d1%80%d0%b0%d1%81%d1%86%d1%83%d1%82%d1%83%d0%b2%d0%b0%d1%9a%d0%b5-%d0%bd%d0%b0-%d1%84%d0%bb%d0%b0%d0%bd%d0%b1%d0%be%d0%b0%d1%98%d0%b0%d0%bd%d0%b8%d1%82%d0%b5\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T12:06:33","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T11:06:33","slug":"before-the-flamboyants-bloomed","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.acosopov.com\/en\/reading-room\/poetry-shelf\/before-the-flamboyants-bloomed\/","title":{"rendered":"Before the Flamboyants Bloomed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h1>\n\t\t\tBefore the Flamboyants Bloomed\t<\/h1>\n\tAll night the earth was weeping,<br \/>\ndry and cracked like overbaked flatbread;<br \/>\nall night the desert winds were blowing,<br \/>\nfilling the crevices with sand.<br \/>\nThe ocean, changing its clothes, shredded its indigo garments,<br \/>\nbut not even that could calm it.<br \/>\nOnly the sky remained tranquil and empty,<br \/>\nas if nothing was happening,<br \/>\nas if it did not see this disaster.\nAll night the earth was howling.<br \/>\nOr maybe it was the thirsty animals<br \/>\nroaming the forests and savannas,<br \/>\ndying next to the dried-up springs.<br \/>\nOr maybe it was the trees bending to breaking point,<br \/>\ntheir leaves lapping at the arid earth.<br \/>\nOnly the sky was cruelly tranquil and empty,<br \/>\nas if nobody needed the rain,<br \/>\nas if it did not see this disaster.\nAll night the earth was writhing.<br \/>\nOr maybe it was the people waiting for rain,<br \/>\nthe way one waits for a first-born child<br \/>\nballed up in a lifeless womb.<br \/>\nBefore dawn, everything dozed off, exhausted, right where it was,<br \/>\npeople and trees and animals.<br \/>\nOnly scraps of the shredded garments still floated on the ocean.<br \/>\nBut with the rising of the sun<br \/>\nas if the wounds of the earth were rising<br \/>\n(red flowers and fires, fires in the city)<br \/>\nthe flamboyants bloomed.\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.acosopov.com\/en\/display-case\/\">Aco \u0160opov<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.acosopov.com\/en\/reading-room\/poetry-shelf\/the-song-of-the-black-woman-content\/\"><i>The Song of the Black Woman<\/i><\/a>, 1976<br \/>\nTranslated from the Macedonian by Christina E. Kramer and Rawley Grau,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.acosopov.com\/en\/reading-room\/poetry-shelf\/the-long-coming-of-the-fire-content\/\"><em>The Long Coming of the Fire<\/em><\/a>, Dallas, Deep Vellum, 2023.\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Before the Flamboyants Bloomed All night the earth was weeping, dry and cracked like overbaked flatbread; all night the desert winds were blowing, filling the crevices with sand. The ocean, changing its clothes, shredded its indigo garments, but not even that could calm it. Only the sky remained tranquil and empty, as if nothing was&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":98423,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-103207","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acosopov.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/103207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acosopov.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acosopov.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acosopov.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acosopov.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103207"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.acosopov.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/103207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103619,"href":"https:\/\/www.acosopov.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/103207\/revisions\/103619"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acosopov.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/98423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acosopov.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}