Arcs

By Magda Portal
Translated By Kathleen Weaver
Today everything
in this smoky love
seems false to me
from the two glazed pools of your eyes
      where my pupils are immobilized
to the thrilled reality
of your infinite hands
 
anguish is the only true thing tonight
palpable in cold hands
in the sob that falls through me
in this desire to ask   f o r g iv e n e s s
 
Ambiguous emeralds of my laughter
Lavish decoration of this foam-laced sadness
like two green eyes that have looked and looked
at the sea and that feel nostalgic
yearning to sleep in its arms
 
       Bless you Hour
   because you affirm my suffering
I know this love is unreal

Copyright Credit: Magda Portal, "Arcs" from Hope and the Sea, tr. by Kathleen Weaver.  Copyright © 2021 by Magda Portal.  Reprinted by permission of Dulzorada Press.
Source:  Hope and the Sea (Dulzorada Press, 2021)