emergency III

he comes from all ideas

even the ones i didn’t have

it is my job to watch him
small he has traveled great distances

he has weighed a balance
he has pricked a pin
he has stroked a hand
he has drawn a piece of chalk

what are the distances
what do they mean
the broken glasses the teeth the storms

look out for him watching but little else

he is there watching everything from outside ideas
and no one sees him

Translated by Curtis Bauer
“emergency” is from Temperatura voz [Voice Temperature] (Barcelona, Pre-Textos, 2010).

You can read and listen to the poem in the original Spanish here.