Featured poet: Mirka Arriagada Vladilo
Mirka Arriagada Vladilo (Antofagasta, 1964) is a poet and psychiatrist. In 1987 she co-founded the poetry collective Lilith, which carried out initiation rites and clandestine activities. She has published the books Cuando el amor se echó a morir como un perro (Mago, 2014), Autobiogeografía (2002) and Lamentaciones, gemidos y ayes (Las Dos Fridas, 1998). Some of her works were published in Antología de las literaturas emergentes (LOM, 1999) and Las cuatros puntos cardinales son tres: el sur y el norte (Arte y Cultura, Cuba, 2008).
Beauty twice over: the jacaranda
The jacaranda blooms twice
in front of her window.
The beauty of day.
Following the curve
the lights of a bar
whisper the nocturnal beauty.
Outside as much happens as within.
She hopes that something will occur
to leave her life in the right place.
The house is made of glass.
It is transparent.
It is a music box.
Her gaze rests
on the European aesthetic of the façades
and the antiques fair.
A madman dressed as a woman
keeps furious poetry in shopping carts.
Sometimes he throws the first stone.
The house is made of glass.
It is transparent.
It is a music box.
The windows must be open
so light and music can be exchanged
like oxygen in alveoli.
The jacaranda has flowers.
The organ grinder arrives.
We have coins.
The house is made of glass.
It is transparent.
It is a music box.
