Featured poet: Francisco Martinovich Salas
Francisco Martinovich Salas (Santiago, 1987) studied Spanish literature at the Universidad Católica de Chile and holds a master’s degree in Literature from the Universidad de Chile. He has formed part of workshops with Rafael Rubio and Juan Antonio Massone. In 2011 he won a scholarship from the poetry workshop of the Fundación Pablo Neruda and in 2012 he published the poetry book Lidia, reprinted by Yogurt de Pajarito. Since 2012 he has written for Poesía y Crítica. Currently he is coediting Obra poética, which gathers the work in verse of the Chilean writer Juan Marín and will be published by Cuarto Propio. The selections below come from his second poetry book Sospecha de nada [Suspicion of Nothing].
No one suspects
until your last name
mapuche peasant afghan
chinese jewish aymara
immigrant or slave
appears on your identity card
in the wrong hand
No one suspects
until they see you run
No one suspects
until you leave
disappear
No one suspects
until they find your old bones
tossed in an empty plot
No one suspects
until you don’t come out of the sea
to say hello
or remove your handcuffs
No one suspects
until you stop
at the Forensic Medical Service
No one suspects
until you appear with your arms
cut off
No one suspects
no
here no one suspects
nothing
without me knowing
No one suspects
this huge
open window
No one suspects you
because that’s just how it is
they tell you
No one suspects
until you don’t come back
ever again
— translated by Jessica Sequeira
