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Poem-a-day

Somber Bull

translated from the Spanish by Craig Epplin

I come from fear 
I feed you dread,

I break the bread of shivers 
among your poor.

I hear boards creaking 
scratched by some perverse animal.

I step into the dark 
I sit in the midst of its dense back.

Sitting there I ask to hear 
your cruelest of stories.

I welcome terror, that somber bull, 
I fight for your name held in his jaws.

I taste the fruit whose coarse skin 
is eaten by beasts who’ve never tasted honey

There’s no more bitter food
than the fruit of love traversed by doubt.

 


 

Ese Toro Sombrío

 

Vengo del miedo. 
con el pavor te alimento,

el pan de su escalofrío lo corto 
entre tus pobres.

Oigo maderas crujir 
por un rasguño de animal perverso.

Entró en la oscuridad. 
me siento al centro de su pastoso fondo.

Desde allí te pido que me cuentes 
tu historia más cruel.

Saludo al terror, ese toro sombrío, 
me disputó tu nombre entre sus fauces.

Pruebo la fruta cuya corteza rugosa 
comen bestias que no conocen el sabor de lamiel.

No hay alimento más amargo 
que un fruto del amor atravesado por la duda.

Copyright © 2025 by Andrea Cote. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on September 5, 2025, by the Academy of American Poets.

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Andrea Cote

Andrea Cote
Photo credit: Lina Castaño
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About Poem-a-Day

Poem-a-Day is the original and only daily digital poetry series featuring over 250 new, previously unpublished poems by today’s talented poets each year. Randall Mann is the Guest Editor of August. Read or listen to a Q&A with Mann about his curatorial process, and learn more about the 2025 Guest Editors. Support Poem-a-Day.  

If you have any questions about Poem-a-Day, visit our Poem-a-Day FAQ.

Previous Poems

Title Author Date
What is Water? Danielle Legros Georges 07/08/2020
Nothing Krysten Hill 07/07/2020
Some Call It God Jabari Asim 07/06/2020
To a Rosebud Eva A. Jessye 07/05/2020
The Sun Went Down in Beauty George Marion McClellan 07/04/2020
Why I don’t write about George Floyd Toi Derricotte 07/03/2020
Measured Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon 07/02/2020
Singularity Marissa Davis 07/01/2020
Afterward but not Afterword A. Van Jordan 06/30/2020
Every Verb is a Lesson in Longing or Dread April Freely 06/29/2020

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