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

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