Exemplary
You glimpse a slight copy
of liquid belly.
Talk about the wind, breed
waves on each page, breeding
breezes on their veneers.
You examine that other
in the water-logged bookshelf.
Give a meticulous detail
of tears opting
down very tense cheeks.
But this one you pose
in your hands (leaves fall apart
like butterflies when passing)
tree account
subdued from childhood,
of a sewer
of residual charm
and a protected bed
between shadows of hope.
Ejemplares
Vislumbras un ligero ejemplar
de vientre líquido.
Habla del viento, engendra
olas en cada página, cría
brisas en sus carillas.
Examinas aquel otro
en la aguachenta estantería.
Da un detalle minucioso
de lágrimas optando
por tensísimas mejillas.
Pero éste que posas
en tus manos (hojas se deshacen
como mariposas al pasar)
cuenta del árbol
doblegado de la infancia,
de una alcantarilla
de residual encanto
y de un lecho protegido
entre sombras de esperanza.
Choice
Give up on it or confront it:
calm or storm,
sunset or dawn.
Go out without knowing what went out
or why;
and who knows what I left
with my departure.
Because today every mist rubs us with its
lips
and tomorrow the hurtful
fangs of the sun
will tear apart the uselessness of
umbrellas.
Abandoned,
on this day abandoned.
With feet to crack the road,
with words to spill in a notebook,
with sins to bury under the trees.
Elección
Renunciar a ello o salir a confrontar:
calma o tempestad,
ocaso o alba.
Salir sin saber que salía ni a qué;
y quien sabe qué fue lo que dejé
con mi partida.
Porque hoy cada bruma nos roza con sus
labios
y mañana los hirientes
colmillos del sol
desgarrarán la inutilidad de los paraguas.
Abandonados,
sobre este día abandonados.
Con pies para agrietar la carretera,
con palabras para derramar en un
cuaderno,
con pecados pare enterrar bajo los
árboles.
MIGUEL AVERO is a narrator, essayist, teacher and researcher who lives in Montevideo, Uruguay. He directs the “Puerta Chimera” writing workshop, and he has been included in various national and international anthologies, specifically, América Invertida: An Anthology of Emerging Uruguayan Poets (University of New Mexico Press, 2016), edited by Jesse Lee Kercheval. He has published the collection of poems Arca de Aserrín (Ediciones en blanco, 2011), and the novella, Micaela Moon (Travesía Ediciones, 2014; reissued in 2015), and another poetry collection, La Pieza (Walkie Talkie Editions, 2018).
JONA COLSON‘s poems, translations, and interviews have been published in Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, The Writer’s Chronicle and elsewhere. His debut poetry collection, Said Through Glass, won the 2018 Jean Feldman Poetry Prize from the Washington Writers’ Publishing House. He teaches in Maryland and lives in Washington, DC.
