WATERY URNS
I only want to lie
swaddled in the water and shadow
of a river on my country’s coastline
up to my waist in my thirty-eight
years
watching the laughs and cries of all thatʼs green pass by
the soft voices of dead little fish
faraway smoke
clouds shaped like old friends
slaughtered
at the foot of vertiginous mountain ranges
deciphering the dialogue between rock and current
pupils eternally open towards impossible
cascades
the aroma of firewood
rain on firefly wings
sun on the curves where iron and lightning
still reside
attentive to the leaves’ soft awakening
astonished by the sleepless nights of meandering rivers
gullible compared to the work of ants
and roots
drinking worms that the moon gives back to me
flying with the mountain winds
asking about the unfinished steps
the charm of bamboo
the shouts encoded by
ghosts in the ravine – the damselflies,
like so, amid slow shadows
feet sunken in the sand and delirious utopias
for those who forded the river
for horses stifled in wintertime
in whose gyre I lost myself
URNAS DE AGUA
Sólo quiero yacer
abrigado por agua y sombra
en un río del litoral de mi país
hundido hasta la cintura en mis treinta y ocho
años
viendo pasar la risa y el griterío de lo verde
las voces de los muertos suaves pececitos
humos lejanos
nubes en forma de viejos amigos
masacrados
al pie de árduas serranías
descifrando el diálogo de rocas y corriente
las pupilas eternamente abiertas hacia cascadas
imposibles
el aroma de la leña
lluvia en las alas de las luciérnagas
sol en las curvas donde aún moran
fierros y relámpagos
atento al suave despertar de las hojas
alucinado con el largo desvelo de los meandros
crédulo ante la obra de hormigas
y raíces
bebiendo gusanos que la luna me devuelve
volando con vientos de la montaña
preguntando por los pasos inconclusos
las gracias del bambú
los gritos codificados por
fantasmas de los barrancos caballitos del diablo
así entre sombras lentas
hundidos los pies en la arena y en las delirantes utopías
de quienes cruzaron ese río
de caballos ahogados en invierno
en cuyo remolino me perdí
Matthew Byrne is a writer and translator living in the San Francisco Bay Area. He holds an MA in sociology from the University of California, Riverside. His work has appeared in Guernica, The Brooklyn Rail, Truthout, and other outlets. His translation of Róger Lindo’s Infernal Splendour and Other Poems is forthcoming from Izote Press in late Spring, 2022.
Róger Lindo is a Salvadoran poet and journalist most famous for his writing in Los Angeles-based publication La Opinión, the largest Spanish-language newspaper in the United States. He is the author of one collection of poetry, Los infiernos espléndidos (1998), and two novels: El perro en la niebla (2008) and La isla de los monos (2016).