Translated from the Spanish by Lynn Levin
For Pablo Bacho
What is the land, what is oblivion
and what map bestows its gaze upon us:
perhaps the stretch marks weep, ask us to what we might give birth
without fire or stone.
So many birds clutter the soul
flighty and abandoned.
Tell me, brother,
which mountain reveals our grave,
what place of shelter flourishes through our speech,
through the echoes that will be us without our recognizing each other.
All the mountains tumble upon us from heaven,
perhaps heaven awaits us in the plain
of mystery.
And tell me, if it isn’t too much of a bother,
what expanse will swallow our footsteps,
where we will be as thousands and sprout
where the tree will branch out in our shared heart
dreaming of the centuries of our children.
Vast and uncertain is the next step
expansive as anguish
relentless
fertile:
A teardrop that reflects the history that has not yet
written itself.
Miguel Bacho was born in Iquique, Chile, in 1986. He has published the poetry collections Papeles Sueltos (Loose Papers) (Edunla, 2013, Argentina), Labores (Labors) (Sismo, 2022, Iquique, Chile) and Desayuno Continental (Continental Breakfast) (Attack Bear Press, Massachusetts, 2023). In 2018 he collaborated with the digital magazine Vice-Versa in the Urban Chronicles section of the journal and has participated in various initiatives and festivals in Western Massachusetts and Philadelphia. He currently resides in Ewing, New Jersey.
Lynn Levin is a poet, writer, and translator, from the Spanish, of Birds on the Kiswar Tree (2Leaf Press), a collection of poems by the Peruvian Andean poet Odi Gonzales. Lynn Levin’s poems, short stories, essays, and translations have appeared in Smartish Pace, Elm Leaves Journal, Michigan Quarterly Review, Solstice Literary Magazine and other places. Her recent books include the short story collection House Parties and the poetry collections The Minor Virtues and Miss Plastique. She teaches at Drexel University. Her website is lynnlevinpoet.com.
Miguel Bacho was born in Iquique, Chile, in 1986. He has published the poetry collections Papeles Sueltos (Loose Papers) (Edunla, 2013, Argentina), Labores (Labors) (Sismo, 2022, Iquique, Chile) and Desayuno Continental (Continental Breakfast) (Attack Bear Press, Massachusetts, 2023). In 2018 he collaborated with the digital magazine Vice-Versa in the Urban Chronicles section of the journal and has participated in various initiatives and festivals in Western Massachusetts and Philadelphia. He currently resides in Ewing, New Jersey.
Lynn Levin is a poet, writer, and translator, from the Spanish, of Birds on the Kiswar Tree (2Leaf Press), a collection of poems by the Peruvian Andean poet Odi Gonzales. Lynn Levin’s poems, short stories, essays, and translations have appeared in Smartish Pace, Elm Leaves Journal, Michigan Quarterly Review, Solstice Literary Magazine and other places. Her recent books include the short story collection House Parties and the poetry collections The Minor Virtues and Miss Plastique. She teaches at Drexel University.
