the match
shows the distances
between things
reveals oppositions symmetries when everything
was dark
and then
everything goes dark
again
but in all those tiny flashing gleams
how many
revelations fit
a wire, scorched and discarded, in a corner
a red dress
amid a jumble of cups plates
on the table in a weird marriage of places
and times
a hammock in the jungle the damp belongings
of the prospector the logger
who felled the embaúbas the chickens
sleeping on thatch stools
in Vincenzo’s tiny yard
how many illuminations
that last just as long as the match’s
transitive
flame
the matches bring it all to life
like a childbirth but here
many lives at a time
brought together
a box of matches these writings a box
where my body takes a seat
and sitting
imagines a body
of tales
Illumination and childbirth are the same thing
in my grandmother’s adoptive tongue
she illuminates, alumbra, da a luz.
She gives birth to a boy
with Lenin’s big head, Anna Stefania
ship’s captain,
this ship
of broken waters.
Yes, there’s the ship,
foundering, leaking,
with her at the helm
captain of a birth
this birth
she gives orders
ties knots
waves a bloody flag
from the darkest porthole,
Anna Stefania bursts
and it’s like tightened cordage snapping
and then she’s
open, red
like a pomegranate
adrift in the grass
once it has sated
the hunger of the birds.
Paula Abramo’s collection Fiat Lux won the 2013 Premio de Poesías Joaquín Xirau Icaza for the best book of poetry by a writer under forty. She co-authored Yo soy la otra: las mujeres y la cultura en México (2017) and the art installation Ropa Sucia (2017), both exploring the invisibility of Mexican female writers and artists. She has also translated 50 books from Portuguese to Spanish.
Richard Cluster’s most recent translations include Gabriela Alemán’s Poso Wells (City Lights, 2018), Mylene Fernández’s A Corner of the World (City Lights, 2014), Pedro de Jesús’s Vital Signs (Lavender Ink/Diálogos 2014), and his anthology Kill the Ámpaya!: Best Latin American Baseball Fiction (Mandel-Vilar 2017). He also writes history and fiction, including The History of Havana (co-authored with Rafael Hernández) and a crime novel series.