Featured poet: Carmen Troncoso Baeza
Carmen Troncoso Baeza (Valparaíso, 1957) trained to teach music at the University of Chile in Valparaíso. She has written two books of poems, Vuelo indomable (Editorial Subterranis, Santiago, Chile) and Al sur de las mariposas (Biblioteca Universalis, Bucharest, Romania). She has participated in four anthologies: Ocho naufragos (Subterranis, Santiago), VII Antología Poética y Libro Digital “Letras del Mundo” (Instituto Cultural Latinoamericano, Argentina), Vertebral: Antología Poética Bilingüe (Biblioteca Universalis, Bucharest, Romania) and a parallel edition of Vertebral (Editorial Signos, Santiago, Chile). Her work has also been published in the magazines Verbo desnudo and La Mancha in Chile, and Pluma y Pincel in Spain. Individual poems and her interviews with writers from different parts of the world have appeared in the magazine Horizont Literary Contemporan published in Bucharest, Rumania since 2010. Her website is www.carmentroncoso.blogspot.com.
Transparent desires
The aquamarine of my eyes
licks your words,
seasoned navigator
If my desire is transparent, take me
if my laugh wheels about between your arms, take me
if my cool tongue
runs over your trembling flesh
fierce and phantom wave
break within me
I, naked,
am not the same,
but tattooed on your mouth
Oranges
I have a crate of oranges
each one so good
sweet oranges, whole oranges.
From your taste I would make a thousand things,
oranges served on fresh mornings
I would go round the world, I would seek life,
mandarin oranges, Seville oranges
You need to eat them to be joyful
a thousand perfect segments
in your ardent mouth
do not say or lie
that this mouth is mine
Warm bond that heals my soul
when the sap of honey
has been left behind
yesterday forgotten
Sweet little orange, I want to lie to you
you are not in my life
I prefer to die
Whenever I like
Floating I want
to burst on the lips
of the waves
in the dazzling sun
dry my shell of jade
Stab the doubts
about what is proper and correct.
Today some orgasms are sold
that appear authentic
evidence
of the love sold
to the lucrative market
of sex
I am not clandestine property
I am not the property of anyone
We will not drink of oblivion
We will not drink of silence
The brave souls
of the poets
crack locks
open doors
even the most violent
and make love
with the light on
when they feel like it
Atemporal romance
This atemporal romance
where there fit
oceans and equators
chiles and mountain ranges
no one stops
Nothing stops
my feline panties
elastic eros
bought very cheap
in the Persa market
On tiptoe I approach
contaminated streets
humming
rosewater melodies
I flirt with leather whips
words ready
for assault or abduction
During your first cellphone call
something stops me
the buttonholes of my blouse
twinkle when
your verses capture me
they enter my blood
and with them
and despite them
that spasm
of golden delight
I stop listening to you
and begin another poem
in the kitchen
— translated by Jessica Sequeira
