Jaula vespertina
Desciendo por esta válvula giratoria
que traga y proyecta luz a distancia.
Contagio de pesadumbre este lánguido túnel que surca
[mi aliento,
burbujea así la aurora enmarcada.
Postrada sobre el tubo agito espalda y plumas,
lucha versada, inverosímil y caótica,
conciencia que llama y llamea opulenta de fe.
Mañana despediré a mi crío de ojos nublados
el beso biforme de ambos reflejos fungirá un ardor,
[sublime, nocturno, divorciado.
Cálida biblioteca enmarca mi nido,
el mutismo
y la hora precisa de opacarme.
Vespers Cage
I descend through this spinning valve
that swallows and projects light at distance.
Spreading heaviness through this languid tunnel that crests
[my breath,
bubbling like that a framed aurora.
Perched atop a wire I shake my back and feathers,
adroit struggle, impossible and preposterous,
a conscience that calls and flickers opulent faith.
Tomorrow I will bid farewell to my newborn of clouded eyes
a bimorph kiss of both reflexes will cast a heat
[sublime, nocturnal, divorced.
Warm library that frames my nest,
a mute
and the precise hour of concealment.
Padre Libélula
Cual mecedora, trafica con el viento
la noche
pretende desvelar dos pupilas:
trastornado el padre bicéfalo se contempla al borde de sí,
inmerso en un costal de hormigas se traslada de lo
[físico a lo etéreo
Sedimenta su fe en la cavidad de sus cráneos.
Las historias se hinchan en la luz, toman forma en la
[inercia,
suspendida en el grosor del labio la palabra exhala:
— Dos dedos penetran, oscilan, despojan de líquido
[la cavidad,
brota diminuto, como vulva, un grumo.
Late paciente.
Father Dragonfly
Such hanger, trafficking with winds
the night
seeks to rid sleep from two pupils:
startled the bicephalous father watches himself from his edges,
sunk in a rib of ants he transfers from the
[physical to the ethereal
His faith sediments in the cavities of skulls.
The stories bloat in light, taking shape in
[inertia,
suspended on the width of the lip the word is breathed:
– Two fingers penetrate, dangle, dig out the liquid
[the cavity,
bursts minutely, like vulva, a clot.
Beating patiently.
Tránsito
Conozco esta simple desidia que transforma al
[insomnio en el recibimiento diurno y pausado
del silencio, franja de madrugada hacia el bullicio
[vespertino.
Pocas aves surgen del mutismo, condenan al tiempo a un
apresurado trote urbano: el murmullo que pulula en la
ciudad, cuando se observa y oye desde una cima distante.
Si la temperatura transcurre y arrastra consigo luz,
[aroma, sonidos
Si el tiempo es conjunto y cómplice de esta corriente
Si el cauce reverdece y enmudece
Más que cíclico es contiguo este agonico suspenso por
[un nuevo dia
Y la línea se hace longeva y finita,
abrumadora pesadumbre.
Espesa intemperie que delimita el fervor de los
[suspiros,
la mañana.
Este punto cero y continuo donde yázgome pálida
[de incertidumbre, sin centro ni féretro.
Transit
I know of this simple lethargy that transforms
[insomnia into the daytime and stutters reception
of silence, stripe of dawn into the muttering
[dawn.
Few birds rise from muteness, condemning time to a hurried
urban gait: the murmur that populates the city
when observed and heard from a distant peak.
If the temperature appears and drags with it light,
[smell, sounds
If time is joint and accomplice to this current
If the rivermouth grows green and quiet
More than cyclical the agonising suspense is contiguous with
[a new day
And the line becomes long and finite,
overwhelming heaviness.
Thick open air binding the fervour
[of sighs
the morning.
This ground zero, continuing where I lay pallid
[with uncertainty, without centre or grave.
Caneo Arguinzones (1987-2014) was born in Caracas, Venezuela. Literature graduate from the Central University of Venezuela (UCV) and founding member of the feminist poetry collective ‘Las Fulanas Esas’ which seeks to bring poetry into streets, prisons and other excluded sectors of society. She has been published in various anthologies such as Voces Nuevas 2004-2005, Fundación Celarg (Venezuela, 2006); La Mujer Rota, Literalia Editores (México, 2008); Nueva Poesía Hispanoamericana, Lord Byron Editores (España, 2009); Rosa Caribe, La Mancha Editorial (Venezuela-Cuba, 2011); Las Chicas van al Baile, Casa del Poeta Peruano (Perú, 2012). She authored one collection, Zoo: Anatomía del Insecto (Monte Ávila, 2013) which had in 2011 won the Monte Ávila national unpublished writer’s award.
Mau Baiocco is a second-year MA student in Poetry & Poetics at the University of York.
Note: These translations were made by Mau Baiocco with feedback and assistance from Paige Murphy. The poems were first featured in a 2018 small circulation pamphlet raising funds for Community Action on Prison Expansion (CAPE).