Repetition Nineteen. Mónica de la Torre
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Wobbling at the edges of
both frames during tree
pose particularly.
*
A translation is moving
every point of a shape the same distance in the same direction.
*
Not ambidextrous I keep silent I understand
the dilemma of playing protagonist prefer a supporting role
the only part of your body remaining undisciplined
detached I am disobedient writes my left hand.
Unlike nostos, algo is unspecified.
nunca sé por dónde empezar, así que decido hacerlo al comerme
una fresa
incontable la cantidad de semillas
can you say I’m of two minds?
yo diría que tengo ideas encontradas
lo cual abre dos posibilidades: que se encuentren como amigas
cada una con su punto de vista
hace tanto que no se ven
o que estén a punto de agarrarse
getting at each other’s throats
pensé que era un mexicanismo, pero no
you’re getting territorial
lo cual a ti nunca te preocupa
what are you talking about
si lo que dices es o no un regionalismo
te tiene sin cuidado, no te define
since I’m just passing through, you mean
pero te fuiste quedando
I went on staying
who’s I anyway
quién habla
ay, interjección para expresar muchos y muy diversos moviemientos
del ánimo, y más ordinariamente aflicción
o dolor
ay, pronounced I, interjection used to express a range of mood shifts,
and more commonly affliction
or pain
*
I never know where to begin so I pick up a strawberry
with its countless seeds
¿cómo dices tengo ideas encontradas?
I am of two minds
como si en tu cerebro se alojaran dos mentes
or your skull had a Siamese twin
lo cual te haría excepcional
but it’s a set phrase, the language figurative
or formulaic
its referent, a common affliction
me hiciste pensar en réferis
who plays arbiter is up for grabs
volvemos a los agarrones
don’t get ahead of yourself
volvemos a las cabezas
ahead not a head
¿por qué no dices la verdad?
te pierdes en tus juegos de palabras
you interrupted me
up for grabs, to be for the taking,
o sea disponible, you misinterpret
to get your point across
I, pronunciado ay, primera persona singular en inglés
I, pronounced ay, first person singular
*
It follows that algo, an indeterminate something, from the Latin,
is unrelated to algos, pain in Greek,
de ahí se desprende que algos, del griego,
poco tiene que ver con algo, del latín.
The rest there’s no need to spell out.
Discontinuous Repetition
You’d like to keep things simple, elemental.
Avoid tying yourself into knots over what you can’t
come to grips with—
dark drives, miscalculations, the facts around the clock.
Or else, arrange your twined strands into arresting patterns.
Or else—
the ring of those two words roping you in.
Roped off is the alternative,
but you know it’s pointless to keep things separate.
Pretend you are given enough rope.
What will you do with it next?
Rope-a-dope.
While you consider options, I salute
how quietly you defy flatness,
your multipurpose materiality.
Who’s you by the way?
It’s difficult to say.
I tangles up easily.
*
“the incidental beauty of non-objects”
*
A reluctant shaman in the guise of a nuisance—a screeching child—promises to purge us subway riders of our general discontent. Let the wind of change speak through his squalls and babble. Dada. Think of it as anti-poetry produced by tiny but sturdy windpipes. He too embraces the formless, rejects the regime.
*
Mobilized is the experience
of confusion where the familiar is made
unfamiliar, and vice versa.
A woman massaged by her partner on the subway platform,
his fists hot stones: “You’re a scared animal.”
Did I mishear that?
Stone in Korean 돌 is also anniversary.
Precious stones are reminders but other types of petrifaction
commemorate the past too, change it into object.
Take stones dangling from a wood beam, they
appear yielding through sheer optical effect.
On the opposite end of the spectrum
are monuments.
Puddles undo their monumentality, turn
statues and towers into shimmering surfaces on the sidewalk.
It’s slippery outside. Hovering cautiously, we too
negotiate between gravity’s pull
and our vertical aspirations.
A mirrored image is a non-material
photograph, an event.
The