Image from Rogelio Guedea.exile
i’m thinking about my feet, sometimes a country i don’t understand
dwelling on my hands, two islands,
on my knee, remote and lonely city,
i think about my shoulders or the nape of my neck, and my never,
on the distance from ear to ear,
the kilometres i must cross to arrive at my heart,
the towns along my back, my airports,
my railways, i dwell on my wintered lips,
autumn’s circles under my eyes, my inflexible skin
bound by four walls, watching the absent tropics,
mexican summers crumbled into fragments,
one shadow cast over the other.
i’m dwelling on my feet, sometimes a foreign land,
a plaza full of strangers, a tongue
that no one speaks, dwelling on my shoulders or my neck,
on my ears and my back,
i dwell on my skin, inflexible and foreign,
without papers,
invisible, barely a ghost.
exilio
pienso en mis pies que a veces son un país que no comprendo,
pienso en mis manos, dos islas,
en mi rodilla, una ciudad alejada y sola,
pienso en mis hombros o mi cuello, en mi nuca y en mi nunca,
en la distancia que hay entre mis orejas,
los kilómetros que necesito recorrer para llegar a mi corazón,
los pueblos de mi espalda, mis aeropuertos,
mis ferrocarriles, pienso en mis labios invernales,
mis ojeras de otoño, mi piel inflexible,
encerrada entre cuatro paredes, mirando el trópico ausente,
quebrados en pedacitos los veranos mexicanos,
una penumbra encima de la otra.
pienso en mis pies que a veces son una tierra extraña,
una plaza llena de gente desconocida, una lengua
que nadie habla, pienso en mis hombros o mi cuello,
en mis orejas y mi espalda,
pienso en mi piel inflexible, extranjera,
sin documentos de identidad,
invisible, apenas un fantasma.
mine field
how, they ask, can a poet live like this, carrying
inside an absent mother, a ruined house,
going about constructing tiny imaginary
castles or fabricating riddles like books
you didn’t ever read and that i wrote to please you/
it’s not the way, they say, for a poet to be free
of her, even if fleeing or thrown
from her, even if living in a far country, alien
as your hands are now, writing more books than the books i wrote
for you to someday read and not in order to win,
they say, fame and fortune, just to win your love’s battle, mother:
country to which I will someday never return.
campo minado
dicen que cómo puede vivir un poeta así llevando
dentro una madre ausente, una casa en ruinas,
caminando por las calle construyendo castillitos
imaginarios o armando rompecabezas como libros
que nunca leíste, y que escribí para agradarte/
dicen que un poeta así no se libra de ésta aunque huya o echen
de su país, ni aunque viva en otro país lejano, ajeno
como tus manos ya, escribiendo más libros que escribí
para que tú los leas algún día y no para ganar,
dicen, fama y fortuna, sino para ganar la batalla de tu amor, madre:
país al que volveré, jamás.
shoreless canto
poem born with bird’s light, this morning, here, within the compass of the
unforeseeable/
writing that doesn’t conspire against anyone
and founders even in that/
mightn’t they founder, those who love?
and those who don’t love, do they founder, too?for light, read bird: this morning,
here/ but better to have said the impossible: cold water from the tap
that wets it, clement green of your eyes, a straight jacket
the indelible,is it said, then? did it remain mid-ecstasy one night, woman bestride its words?
for bird, read light:
and it’s singing.
un canto sin orillas
poema que va naciendo con la luz del pájaro, esta mañana, aquí, en el compás de lo
imprevisible/
escritura que no conspira contra nadie
y hasta en ello se equivoca/
¿se equivocan acaso los que aman?
¿también los que no aman se equivocan?si ha dicho luz, ha dicho pájaro: esta mañana,
aquí/ pero mejor si ha dicho lo imposible: el agua fría del surtidor
que lo moja, el tierno verdor de tus ojos, una camisa de fuerza
lo imborrable,¿lo ha dicho entonces? ¿se quedó en la mitad del éxtasis, con la mujer montada en sus
palabras, una noche?si ha dicho pájaro, ha dicho luz:
y está cantando.
- 115: SPACE
with A Sometimes
114: NO THEME 13
with J Toledo & C Tse
113: INVISIBLE WALLS
with A Walker & D Disney
112: TREAT
with T Dearborn
111: BABY
with S Deo & L Ferney
110: POP!
with Z Frost & B Jessen
109: NO THEME 12
with C Maling & N Rhook
108: DEDICATION
with L Patterson & L Garcia-Dolnik
107: LIMINAL
with B Li
106: OPEN
with C Lowe & J Langdon
105: NO THEME 11
with E Grills & E Stewart
104: KIN
with E Shiosaki
103: AMBLE
with E Gomez and S Gory
102: GAME
with R Green and J Maxwell
101: NO THEME 10
with J Kinsella and J Leanne
100: BROWNFACE
with W S Dunn
99: SINGAPORE
with J Ip and A Pang
97 & 98: PROPAGANDA
with M Breeze and S Groth
96: NO THEME IX
with M Gill and J Thayil
95: EARTH
with M Takolander
94: BAYT
with Z Hashem Beck
93: PEACH
with L Van, G Mouratidis, L Toong
92: NO THEME VIII
with C Gaskin
91: MONSTER
with N Curnow
90: AFRICAN DIASPORA
with S Umar
89: DOMESTIC
with N Harkin
88: TRANSQUEER
with S Barnes and Q Eades
87: DIFFICULT
with O Schwartz & H Isemonger
86: NO THEME VII
with L Gorton
85: PHILIPPINES
with Mookie L and S Lua
84: SUBURBIA
with L Brown and N O'Reilly
83: MATHEMATICS
with F Hile
82: LAND
with J Stuart and J Gibian
81: NEW CARIBBEAN
with V Lucien
80: NO THEME VI
with J Beveridge
57.1: EKPHRASTIC
with C Atherton and P Hetherington
57: CONFESSION
with K Glastonbury
56: EXPLODE
with D Disney
55.1: DALIT / INDIGENOUS
with M Chakraborty and K MacCarter
55: FUTURE MACHINES
with Bella Li
54: NO THEME V
with F Wright and O Sakr
53.0: THE END
with P Brown
52.0: TOIL
with C Jenkins
51.1: UMAMI
with L Davies and Lifted Brow
51.0: TRANSTASMAN
with B Cassidy
50.0: NO THEME IV
with J Tranter
49.1: A BRITISH / IRISH
with M Hall and S Seita
49.0: OBSOLETE
with T Ryan
48.1: CANADA
with K MacCarter and S Rhodes
48.0: CONSTRAINT
with C Wakeling
47.0: COLLABORATION
with L Armand and H Lambert
46.1: MELBOURNE
with M Farrell
46.0: NO THEME III
with F Plunkett
45.0: SILENCE
with J Owen
44.0: GONDWANALAND
with D Motion
43.1: PUMPKIN
with K MacCarter
43.0: MASQUE
with A Vickery
42.0: NO THEME II
with G Ryan
41.1: RATBAGGERY
with D Hose
41.0: TRANSPACIFIC
with J Rowe and M Nardone
40.1: INDONESIA
with K MacCarter
40.0: INTERLOCUTOR
with L Hart
39.1: GIBBERBIRD
with S Gory
39.0: JACKPOT!
with S Wagan Watson
38.0: SYDNEY
with A Lorange
37.1: NEBRASKA
with S Whalen
37.0: NO THEME!
with A Wearne
36.0: ELECTRONICA
with J Jones