postmodern ballad

birds of paradise, by Komail Aijazuddin

Your voice across the seas
sounds in the receiver
as if it were
in the other room.

On the night table:
the watch, your portrait
and the letter — by fax —
in your hand.

Tomorrow, already imminent
on the screen: your laugh,
your hand, your ring,
your hair and comb.

Going by what one hears and sees,
there no longer remains
time or space
for absence.

Without smell or touch,
everything is swallowed
in the simulacrum
of presence.

I write you this poem
as a protest
of love that refuses
to consent to indifference.

~ Eduardo Mitre, trans. from Spanish by Jessica Sequeira

Eduardo Mitre was born in Oruro and is the author of ‘mirabilia’ and ‘elegía a una muchacha’.

Jessica Sequeira is a writer and translator living in Buenos Aires.