Poems

Matilde, years or days sleeping, feverish, here or there, gazing off, twisting my spine, bleeding true blood, perhaps I awaken or am lost, sleeping: hospital beds, foreign windows, white uniforms of the silent walkers, the clumsiness of feet. And then, these journeys and my sea of renewal: your head on the pillow, your hands floating … Read more

Littlerose,roselet,at times,tiny and naked,it seemsas though you would fitin one of my hands,as though I’ll clasp you like thisand carry you to my mouth,butsuddenlymy feet touch your feet and my mouth your lips:you have grown,your shoulders rise like two hills,your breasts wander over my breast,my arm scarcely manages to encircle the thinnew-moon line of your … Read more

La callese llenó de tomates,mediodia,verano,la luzse parteen dosmitadesde tomate,correpor las callesel jugo.En diciembrese desatael tomate,invadelas cocinas,entra por los almuerzos,se sientareposadoen los aparadores,entre los vasos,las matequilleras,los saleros azules.Tieneluz propia,majestad benigna.Debemos, por desgracia,asesinarlo:se hundeel cuchilloen su pulpa viviente,es una rojaviscera,un solfresco,profundo,inagotable,lle na las ensaladasde Chile,se casa alegrementecon la clara cebolla,y para celebrarlose dejacaeraceite,hijoesencial del olivo,sobre sus hemisferios … Read more

To whoever is not listening to the seathis Friday morning, to whoever is cooped upin house or office, factory or womanor street or mine or harsh prison cell;to him I come, and, without speaking or looking,I arrive and open the door of his prison,and a vibration starts up, vague and insistent,a great fragment of thunder … Read more

The memory of you emerges from the night around me.The river mingles its stubborn lament with the sea. Deserted like the wharves at dawn.It is the hour of departure, oh deserted one! Cold flower heads are raining over my heart.Oh pit of debris, fierce cave of the shipwrecked. In you the wars and the flights … Read more

Fleas interest me so muchthat I let them bite me for hours.They are perfect, ancient, Sanskrit,machines that admit of no appeal.They do not bite to eat,they bite only to jump;they are the dancers of the celestial sphere,delicate acrobatsin the softest and most profound circus;let them gallop on my skin,divulge their emotions,amuse themselves with my blood,but … Read more

It’s good to feel you are close to me in the night, love,invisible in your sleep, intently nocturnal,while I untangle my worriesas if they were twisted nets. Withdrawn, your heart sails through dream,but your body, relinquished so, breathesseeking me without seeing me perfecting my dreamlike a plant that seeds itself in the dark. Rising, you … Read more

Among the market greens,a bulletfrom the oceandepths,a swimming projectile, I saw you,dead. All around youwere lettuces,sea foamof the earth,carrots,grapes,butof the oceantruth,of the unknown,of theunfathomableshadow, the depthsof the sea,the abyss,only you had survived,a pitch-black, varnishedwitnessto deepest night. Only you, well-aimeddark bulletfrom the abyss,mangledat one tip,but constantlyreborn,at anchor in the current,winged finswindmillingin the swiftflightof themarineshadow,a mourning arrow,dart … Read more

What it takes on this planet, to make love to each other in peace. Everyone pries under your sheets, everyone interferes with your loving. They say terrible things about a man and a woman, who after much milling about, all sorts of compunctions, do something unique, they both lie with each other in one bed. … Read more