the night finds me burning roses on a sink
and the moon shows as a mineral endemic
to your body
i am like the water waving its surrender over the fire
without your gestures that speak with the smoke
without your knees that are my guardians
without the secret heart you give to me in your sleep
at dawn
i quiver in the acrobatics of silence
to sit at the top of the fog
and wait for your voice with the telephone in my hands
but suddenly i hear them
the animals of distance look at me
from their impossible pelage
they come to lick my bed
their long thin bodies
like vertebrae of the air
claim me as part of the pack
call me
call
Claudia Berrueto
translated by Lorena Saucedo