“My voice will weigh on you”
By Irma Pineda
Translated By Wendy Call
My voice will weigh on you
like a rope hanging from your neck
My voice will be the vulture
that patrols your rotting body
and remains tattooed
among the sounds in your mind
so that you can’t sleep
because you clawed the light
from our grandparents’ eyes
Translated from the Isthmus Zapotec and Spanish
Notes:
Read the Isthmus Zapotec-language version by Irma Pineda. Read the Spanish-language version by Irma Pineda. Read the note on this poem by Wendy Call.
Source: Poetry (February 2022)