Is counting bodies the same
as counting rocks at night?
The focused gesture of counting
—piece by piece—
is it the same?
Is it the same
lantern light
that illuminates the body and the rock?
And if they’re thrown in the water,
do they sink the same?
And if one of the bodies does not appear,
is it the same absence that a rock leaves
when it’s not in its place?
Translated by Juan Afanador
Juan Afanador (Bogotá, Colombia, 1992) studied Anthropology with an emphasis on Creative Writing at the Universidad de los Andes. Some of his poems have been published in REC (the magazine of the students of Arts and Humanities of the Universidad de los Andes), Cabeza de gato, La raíz invertida, and Literariedad, as well as in Conexos magazine. He is founder, director, and member of the editorial board of the virtual poetry magazine Otro páramo.
She has the face of someone who has just sworn off marriage: part wilted, part revived, neither of the factions ever too transparent.
…A perception exists that Gaúchos, the name given to those from the southernmost Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul and epitomized in a historical figure akin to the cowboy,…
The trees speak so little, you know. / They spend their entire life meditating / and moving their branches.
…
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