^{translated from the Catalan by Peter Bush}

                                       from the earth where memories are marooned


Smell of snail’s flesh, bodies of animals: all summer, from creeks to dikes. From leeches hooked on legs. From leeches and phosphorescent kingfishers. From wrinkled heels like cracked dikes. From dikes and silt, from hen shit. From yellow lilies and water rats. From a canebrake’s ancient roots. From pools, whirlpools and streams. From the bleeding mallard plummeting.From the feared swamp sawgrass that bloodies them. I am made of all that they were. And of the black earth where I will plunge seeking the truth.

To my father and mother
March 2019