XXVIII
Róger Lindo
Translated from the Spanish by Matthew Byrne
To Alfredo
He
who delightfully read to Scorza
rots in the nation’s prison cells
with an amputated leg
and a single golden tooth
The metal bars are open, in the customary style,
and his fist is held in abeyance
but other lives are owed to Alfredo
in the meantime a beer awaits him
in the far, far off distance
Amatitlán, Guatemala remembers its corns and calluses
(Cinquera at midnight
fourteen crew cuts and a huipil
see it happen)
and its stump ducks from one dream to the next
facing the iron hearse
Mariona’s heat
compels him to get settled again
peaches fall
on the girls’ springtime bellies
the fireflies
aren’t wrapped up warm just yet
xxviii
A Alfredo
El
que leía a Scorza con deleite
se pudre en los separos de la nación
con la pierna amputada
y un diente de oro
La reja se estila abierta
y el puño está en suspenso
pero a Alfredo le deben otras vidas
mientras una cerveza lo espera
en la lejana lejana lejanía
Amatitlán recuerda sus callos
(cinquera de medianoche
catorce pelones y un huipil
lo ven pasar)
y su muñón se agacha de sueño en sueño
ante la carroza de fierros
El calor de Mariona
lo obliga a reacomodarse
duraznos caen
en los vientres de las niñas de abril
las luciérnagas
no le abrigan ya
Róger Lindo is a Salvadoran poet and journalist most popular for his writing in Los Angeles’s La Opinión, the largest Spanish-language newspaper in the United States. He is the author of one collection of poetry, Los infiernos espléndidos (1998), and two novels: El perro en la niebla (2008) and La isla de los monos (2016).
Matthew Byrne is a writer and translator. His writing has appeared in Guernica, The Brooklyn Rail, Truthout, and elsewhere.
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