What have you done with your freedom?
by marielos olivo / translation by willy palomo

To sprout in anxious earth

            longing for fertilizer/water/sun

                        to refuse to be a hostess for pollen

                                    and the natural cycle

running with wolves despite the terror, the insatiable fangs/claws

            and howl the cry of an unknown lymph

                        bright yellow

                        or orange

To let the tongue loose

            soaked with fury/rain/love

                        waiting for the call in silence

                                                and in a moment of inattention

                                    be a part of that chorus

                                                            of mutes/sirens/tramps

It’s nothing spectacular

                        to exist

                        without permission

                                                to breathe

                                                though with difficulty 

only that and a little more

*This poem first appeared in the collection Tres Tercas Trincheras published by Edizioni FormArti in a trilingual Spanish-Italian-English edition.