Cecilia Pavon
Trans. by Jacob Steinberg

Untitled

from Licorice Candies

“I oftentimes wander from here to there,
just to keep up with the fog”
—Robert Walser

They closed the malls, the banks, the movie theaters
all you can think of is letting yourself get taken away like
the beggar woman in that avant-garde
film, without a plot, the one you heard about
from a friend at a dance
You’ve never gone anywhere
and when you did manage to leave
you only made it to a country where they robbed you of
your imagination
and on the way back
in the airport
the airline employees had to use string
to shut your suitcase
as it exploded from how full it was

You love bicycles and dancing:
you think they’re the only things that could give you
a sense of concrete change
you go out seeking friends
you come home alone
the days pass by and you don’t call the numbers
scribbled in tiny handwriting
on scraps of paper
you leave them on your balcony
and the sun erases the numbers.

Cecilia Pavón was born in Mendoza, Argentina, in 1973. She founded the creative space Belleza y Felicidad with Fernanda Laguna. She’s published numerous books in Spanish, most recently the short story collection Los sueños no tienen copyright, and a book of poems, 27 poemas con nombres de persona. She also collaborated on the fanzinesCeci & Fer and Ceci & Fer II. In 2013, Sand Paper Press will release a selection of her work translated to English by Stuart Krimko. Her blog: http://oncesur.blogspot.com/
 
Jacob Steinberg was born in Stony Brook, New York, in 1989. In 2011, he graduated from NYU and currently lives in Buenos Aires while working on his Masters in Spanish and Latin American Literature. He works as a translator, operating the website Chronos (loves) Kairos. His publications include This isn’t about Jon Ross, it’s about art and Magulladón. His blog: http://magulladon.tumblr.com/.