ANNABELL MANJARRÉS FREYLE

ANNABELL MANJARRÉS FREYLE

THE SOUND OF THE WIND

The sound of the wind is a handful of dried leaves,

the chorus of souls that escape

between the cracks in the windows.

What will become of its sound without the roughness

of the walls or the wound of the roof tiles?

Perhaps a chimera,

a deaf stillness.

(The White Moon Mirror, 2010)

FULL MOON, BLOOD TIDE

The blood released from me

with a moaning moon in the background,

tastes like pure iron.

I could forge

a sword with it tocut my fears

or a chisel to sculpt myself,

but this blood

—owner in each drop

of the turn of the milky way—

hurts my legs when it falls

and it bends me over, weak.

There is submission in my gaze,

there is fear.

Man’s pain weighs in my womb

because no one new came to this world

to demand anything of me.

What sadness are you referring to, shameful life?

I grip the knives I use to bite

my lips

to taste my bubbling red.

Likewise, without begging for forgiveness,

—without blaming myself for being barren a few

days more—

I heal the surge of waves that age the

seas.

What sadness are you referring to, stained seaweed,

if on the beach you await a full moon

thirsty for blood?

(The White Moon Mirror, 2010)

THE BLACK BUTTERFLY

BROUGHT NO GUESTS

In a corner of the house

I abandon my pride.

From off the street arrived that black

and stunning thing

fluttering its wound.

It searches for a kind corner to die,

a high place for displaying

its rage and sadness.

All of the ire imagined

is humiliated before remorse

and this blames it, gloating over

the same rude scene.

From off the street arrived

that nervous and velveted being,

but the house is bored

and superstitions are vices.

No one wants wounded pride

—the walls mutter—

unaccustomed to disaster

it will always arrive home alone.

(Invertebrate Animals, 2017)

ANNABELL MANJARRÉS FREYLE

ANNABELL MANJARRÉS FREYLE: (Gaira, Colombia, 1985). Communications specialist and journalist. Poet and storyteller. Author of three unpublished volumes of poetry: Espejo Lunar Blanco [The White Moon Mirror], Óleo de una mujer acosada por el tiempo [Painting of a Woman harassed by Time], and Animales invertebrados [Invertebrate Animals]. Her poems have been translated into English, Catalan, French, Turkish, Rumanian and Italian, and appear in various national and international anthologies. She has been invited to International Poetry Medellín Festival, International Poetry Nazim Hikmet Festival in Istambul, Turquie and International Poetry Mihai Eminescu in Craiova, Rumania. Her poems have been translated into English, Catalan, French, and Italian, and appear in various national and international anthologies. The next selection has been translated by Ana María Correa: