Skip to content →

A Few Things Are Explained to Me / Me Explican Alugunas Cosas

It was five o’clock when paper handkerchiefs descended

over the ocean’s surge—

one ocean varnished by oil in the morning, fish

under the surge’s blades.

My country, you whimpered under fog. I awoke to the tender

sound of seashells on the radio.

I knelt by myself and listened: your flat skeleton, large skeleton,

would group at the back.

Come, you murmured over canned goods. Come. I will tell you

everything

clay seeps onto roots, roots drawn by salt, roots crowned

by trees. The cords unravel from the flesh of trees, unravel

by storm shutters. Come.

See the roads brim with red poppy, roads tracked

by green serpents

((a la víbora, víbora / de la mar, de la mar))

I tendered nine eggs before the ignorant lion

of exile, who nodded.

At five in the morning, everything seemed to be made of lime—

one torso shrouded by magnolia, one torso under vulgar peal

of grey morgues, and the fish.

A las cinco de la mañana, descendían sobre olas pañuelos

de papel

—ese océano revestido por aceite en la mañana, los peces

bajo el filo de olas.

Pueblo mío, gemías bajo niebla cuando desperté

con el ruido tierno de caracolas en radios.

Me arrodillé para escucharte—tu esqueleto gordo

pero raso se agrupaba a tus espaldas.

Venid, dijiste sobre enlatados. Venid. Os contaré algo

el lodo sangraba sus raíces en sal, se coronaban de árboles, desenredaban

cuerdas encarnadas de los árboles

bajo tormenteras. Venid.

Ver las calles colmadas de amapolas cortadas, calles rodeadas

de víboras

((a la víbora, víbora / de la mar, de la mar)).

Solté mis nueve huevecillos frente al león ignorante

del exilio. Él cabeceaba.

A las cinco de la mañana, me parecía todo estar hecho de cal—

un torso revestido por sudarios de magnolia, un torso desdoblado

bajo vulgar campanadas

de una morgue gris, y los peces.

from The Life AssignmentFind more by Ricardo Alberto Maldonado at the library

Copyright © 2020 Ricardo Alberto Maldonado
Used with the permission of The Permissions Company, LLC on behalf of Four Way Books.

Published in Poems Ricardo Alberto Maldonado

This program is supported in part by a grant from the Idaho Humanities Council, a State-based program of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this (publication, website, exhibit, etc.) do not necessarily represent those of the Idaho Humanities Council or the National Endowment for the Humanities.