Aftermath

Two Poems after the Spanish of Claribel Alegría,
especially "Ausencia" and "Florecen los almendros"
from Alegría's collection Aprendizaje (San Salvador:
Editorial Universitaria de El Salvador, 1970)

I

"Hello," I say,

touching your photograph.

But the greeting crumbles

to ash between my lips.

I see the stricken trees,

shards of trunks,

black, fallen vines

where we once stepped,

enveloped in

twenty-seven shades

of living green.

It hurts again to breathe

in that burned-off forest.

II

Almonds are flowering

in Majorca; you're

not here to see them.

Petals fell

onto my balcony

last night. I called

your name and traced you

in their phosphorescence.

Like a ghost, they rose,

billowing.

Just a breath

tore you away.

Copyright © 1986 Marian Jane Dickinson