"The sky's chest seemed so close"

In my dreams, the spirits tied my hammock's ropes high up in the sky. They looked like radio antennas extended at my side. They became paths that led the xapiri and their songs to me, just like the white people's telephone's talking path. I was lying calmly but I could feel my hammock getting bigger and bigger. Then I had the impression I was growing bigger with it. I was still only a small child, but I felt myself getting huge. I would look around and see nothing but a large void. It made me dizzy. The sky's chest seemed so close, within reach. A sound rose up from it, like the one from the groups of dancers yelling loudly when they arrive at a reahu feast: "Ao, Ao, Ao!" This was the clamor of the xapiri dancing as they came towards me, but I couldn't see them very well. Then after a while everything stopped. As I struggled to wake up I still felt huge. But realizing I was normal size, I worried and asked myself: "I'm still so small! But how could have I become so enormous?" and wound up falling back asleep.

-- from The Falling Sky by Davi Kopenawa and Bruce Albert (2010, 2013)


Photo: Sabastião Salgado