Saturday, August 1, 2026

A poem by Laura Cecilia Cárdenas (Venezuela, 1999) translated by Judith Filc / Un poema de Laura Cecilia Cárdenas

 

Fourteen Three

She smelled of skin wild lemongrass 
clothes washed with blue soap 
green thread mango bubbling in sugar

You could see her steam,
yellow
as annatto oil 
and her colander thickened
from the good years.   

I felt her slight
translucent
like oat and sugar flakes  
drizzling from the fan 
while Sabina and me 
turned as we sang

My childhood sounded with rhythm
like the fan of my mother alone 
to lower the night's fever 
with the claps of my grandmother on the dough
and the sound of the river stone 
would turn the cow into a calf
the garlic into lunch  
 poverty into riches. 



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