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Indigenous Literature

Four Poems

  • by Manuel Tzoc Bucup

*

I am
a small, pale poem
—that never said anything—
and wants to erase itself
with tears

 

*

My death
are empty books hung along a bombed-out wall
my body
the empty and bombed-out wall

From Escop(o)etas para una muerte en versos b…ala (2015)

 

Child X

The only thing you can’t lose
in this world of loss and debts
is tenderness,
embrace yourself/touch yourself with your fireous fingertips
dance on a summer afternoon to the rhythm of the waves
and also imagine
and imagine again
never tire of imaging
your death among the clouds
a wooden toy car
a rainfall of grey sunflowers
my chocolate cake child X
who lives only in my head
because he doesn’t exist

Oh! My storm-child
of the passing comet
with his crippling fingers
let yourself be burned
with the rays of a tepid sun
let yourself be carried away by a wind
that moves towards forgetfulness

From “De textos insanos” (2009)

 

*

My love
phallic hallucinogenic mushroom
semen of light
testicles of blue rain
hands tentacles pleasure
for you:
my multidimensional anus
my animal lips tongue
(you penetrated me with your cock and eyes)

From Gay(o) (2015)

Translated by Paul M. Worley

  • Manuel Tzoc Bucup

Manuel Tzoc is an interdisciplinary poet and visual artist whose poet work serves as a matrix to unite diverse aesthetic language languages in the creation of a work. His craft focuses on re-signifying objects through written poetry, exploring all of the book’s aesthetic possibilities, and giving it the status of a visual object. He seeks to experiment with the word and the object. He’s self-taught through workshops, certificates, and his readings in contemporary art and literature. His literary works include Esco-p(o)etas para una muerte en ver(sos) b-a…l…a (Folio 114, Guatemala, 2006), De Textos Insanos (Santa Muerte Cartonera, México, 2009), GAY(0) (Milena- Caserola, Argentina 2010), El Ebrio Mar y Yo (s.o.p.a. , Guatemala, 2011), el trabajo poético/teatral en conjunto con Cecilia Porras El Jardín de los Infantes Locos y la Escafandra de Oro (Catafixia Editorial, Guatemala 2013), y los libros-objeto Polen (edición de autor, Guatemala 2014) y Cuerpo de Niño Triste (edición de autor, Guatemala 2015) Constante huida: crimen de un corazón que no recuerdo y/o pronunciamientos del habla tartamuda (Catafixia Editorial, Guatemala 2016). He is co-editor of the fanzine Macha and La Maleta Ilegal Press. His work has been published in magazines and anthologies throughout the Américas. His visual work has been exhibited in venues such as Se Alquila (Ciudad de Guatemala, 2014), Western Carolina University’s Fine Art Museum (USA, 2015), Rarities (France, 2016), and the Luciano Benetton Foundation Art Collection (Italy, 2016).

  • Paul Worley
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