First Love

The file first

saved by my an   –   xi   –   uos   fingers

remains on the hard drive       of my heart;

                                                                                    I will not delete it.

Their errors    tick   –   el      me,

my clumsiness moving the mouse     

                                                that today is another phalanx of my hand.

The following versions are repeated, without intending to, their architecture;

                                                                                    a sterile farse.

Names follow one another in my address book

like a wardrobe changes as you grow.

The names are forgotten, the precise details

come out to meet us some morning

when we open a file.

My hands have lost their   inn   –   o   –   cent   trem   –   ble . . .

But we are the same people.

Translated by Curtis Bauer
“First Love” is from Nanas para hombres grises (Lullabies For Grey Men) (Diputación de Huelva, 2006).

You can read and listen to the poem in the original Spanish here.