arithmetic
by marcos Valerio Cisfuentes Reyes
translation by willy palomo

One, two, three
is how we count our delusions 
or the translucent whales of grief.

Tonight we fall asleep counting chickens
like this
by heart
like it’s the way back home
to lie to Mom  
about our “minor” disasters and wounds.

Here we learn arithmetic 
by counting cadavers.
This is why we are specialists in cardinal numbers
and fractions.