Olivia Ruiz ('78) works as a cultural anthropologist at El Colegio de la Frontera Norte in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. Her collection of poems, Cordero del Deseo, was published by Ediciones Torremozas and will appear in translation through Black Zinnias Press.


 


  

 

Haz lo que quieras conmigo
con tal que me hagas reír

Pica mi silencio     entiérralo
en el país de tu voz
haz conmigo lo que quieras

Salpica mis heridas con tu circo de verbos
salados y biencomidos

Pon tu risa en la llaga
de todas mis mujeres muertas

 

 

Do with me as you wish
as long as you make me laugh.

Pique my silence      bury it
in the country of your voice
do with me as you wish.

Splash my hurts with the circus
of your salty well-fed verbs.

Place your laughter on the open wound
of all my dead women.

                                                                                   

 

 

Translation by Joan Lindgren

Cordero del Deseo (2007) Madrid: Ediciones Torremozas