A witch gave you a pair of legs
(and other things I won’t mention).
Satisfied with your new body, you set off
for dry land. It was August and nobody
was surprised to see you on the beach,
naked and smiling
Gustavo Pérez Firmat
GUSTAVO PÉREZ FIRMAT has published several books of poetry in Spanish and English, among them Sin lengua, deslenguado and Bilingual Blues. His books of cultural criticism include Life on the Hyphen and Tongue Ties. He teaches at Columbia University, where he is the David Feinson Professor Emeritus in the Humanities.