speech

Birds fly to the sun, by Iryna Lialko

You’ll never escape if you never take off,
exiting by a real or unreal door
departing in the tone of rising rain or bird.
You’ll never leave easily and maybe never fully
because of greater demands, above all
from your place of origin, that uncertain tower
ever threatening, hungry for the same dreams.
Everyone requires time and friction
to reach that climax after the tongue.
The point of tension doesn’t depend on
the number of scenes and hugs flying about
or the name of the city left at midnight,
but on what profiles, keys, legs in shadow,
and foldable skies one leaves, what
smiling giants —

she said, going away
in the intersection of a bird

~ Emma Villazón, trans. from Spanish by Jessica Sequeira

Emma Villazón studied philosophy in Santiago de Chile and published the books of poems ‘fábulas de una caída’ and ‘lumbre de ciervos’.

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