Rogelio Gueda
Enclaves
searching for his parts from the other side of the sidewalk:
his hand,
his foot's street,
an eye watching him cry
in the distance
(going here, coming there):
and then, on the corner
exact,
the man clutching his branches, his circle of infinite seas,
his shell above
and from below:
recovering tress and walls, watches and cornices, a boat
that was passing by carrying it,
brought towards its heron/
with a fishhook in the water's limits, river without luggage or
don jorge's verses
(all the rivers are going to end up…)
and a wave falls,
falling another inlet/ /
tied to its abysses (an abyss can also be
the sum of two houses)
and to its shadow (a shadow without pajamas or hammer),
retracing the corridors of memory,
his uncertain path,
one day and beyond,
until (his hand) arrives at my country,
in order to say –again, anew–:
father,
these holes you left.
Translated from the Spanish by Megan Saltzman
Rogelio Guedea is poet, essayist, novelist and translator. Some of his recent books are: Mine Fields (Aldus, 2013), Life in the Rear Window and Other Portable Stories (Lectorum, 2012), Wristwatch: a Chronicle of the Mexican Poetry (19th and 20th Century) (UNAM, 2011), and The Crime of Los Tepames (Random House Mondadori, 2013). He is also a columnist of the Mexican newspapers El Financiero and La Jornada Semanal and currently the coordinator of the Spanish Programme at the University of Otago
