Great Expectations
To encompass is to stroke the void, that subtle material.
The heart fits into the physics of things
when we celebrate continuity between dimensions.
Invasive imagery stalks my narration.
Perception is an ally, and it lends structure;
let’s try to unwrap experience and bring it sensitively out of focus,
rendering it unclassifiable.
Keep me company.
You imagined it would be different, but this is your home now;
that rock will be your lamp, that other one your bed.
If the decor is asleep, don’t make any noise . . .
You’ll live here with the windows.
They’re relaxed and spend all their time looking out of themselves,
fascinated by being described in the landscape.
Walk all over me until you’ve covered every last inch;
the forward movement of your body gets me going,
when you cry, I cry . . .
Stay and spend the night,
you’ll find solace in the corner.
The bedroom takes shelter in the shine of your visit.
Awesome Ill
Originally written in English by darío himself
Drink with me dreams
to those who never made it
and to those other ones who
never made me.
O remember the blue-dawned lips
beneath the blanket’s spells
that with a simple wink
could turn the seaside’s eyelids
into a disconsolate pair of socks.
And o that time when you thought you were the only you there
and the shrieks and the whispers answered with a yes
I was scared all the way down to my sex
like a foreign child who grew up in a copy-paste building
wondering which night could be the night itself.
A blood-red glove hangs on the bathroom’s door knob
let us pray to the shower that just for once
let us be the cold that cools the water’s shades.
The Uncollected Trash Will Fly and Boo-hoo through the Traincars and Shreds of Her Unseeming Heart
Around where I live bitter helicopters leak suspicion
insolently they extend the motor’s contagion
blotting out islands that have become planets
in their quest to prevent uncertainty
that gift of not making up one’s mind
like celestial flames from above
over the hidden forest of every house
the relief of disregarding time shows up
to call us nameless and make the sun rise from our eyelids
I’ve fallen in love with you because place occurs whenever you appear
(intervening is a radical way of inhabiting / inhabitation is radical
intervention)
I don’t have any experience in buttoning up my shirt
but I can carry a ton of trash bags at the same time
the sneeze you drowned behind the ivy swarm to avoid being seen by that
language painter who would give an arm and leg to do your portrait seemed
to turn into the first date’s yawn
silence fattens
the adjectives don’t seem adequate
my nerves’ mewling is inexplicable
pores whistling steam
a plane knows nothing of where the clouds don’t reach
pedestrians pumping iron
to deliver their gifts
all that and more stands guard over the hour
until someone gets hurt
bruno darío (Cuernavaca, 1993 – Mexico City, 2022) was author of Lantana, o la exhalación indisoluble (Lantana; or, the indissoluble exhalation), a trilogy forthcoming from Ugly Duckling Presse in Kit Schluter’s translation, comprised of his three full-length books: celebración, espanto (feast, fright), mal de aire (airsickness), and asolar (raze). Juan Malasuerte Editores recently published a collection of his early books in Mexico City under the title, El opuesto de la flor, y otros poemas (The opposite of the flower, and other poems). As translator, he produced the first Spanish-language edition of Stéphane Mallarmé’s book of occasional verse, Dones de frutos glaseados en Año Nuevo (A gift of candied fruits for the New Year).
Kit Schluter has recently translated books into English from the French and Spanish of Rafael Bernal, Copi, Anne Kawala, Mario Levrero, Marcel Schwob, Olivia Tapiero, and Enrique Vila-Matas. As author, he has published Cartoons, a book of stories and drawings, and Pierrot’s Fingernails, a collection of prose poetry. He lives in Mexico City and designs books for a living.
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Heavy Feather Review 