Two Poems by Armanco Ayala Ochoa

Fractal Phrase

Why not saying dawn
and being born healthier
before memory
before losing sight
of the flowers
why not trying
to be a little less
sometimes
and floating on oil
light sorrows
earth
orange trees
That thorns would hurt us
and the daybreak would not find
any reason to give birth
to clouds
being less than less
if after all
on the route
our eyes
looked at
tons of marvels


One-thousandth Stare

…and we are less naïve
than it looks like
before afternoon as those steps
that go back
as they walk more
a cloud
a stream of dead
tension climbing up
our muscles
what is the recipe?
It seems that the leaves
Walk with us
Entangled on the doors
That inhabited us
…and we are less naïve
And however
it hurts us more
and it stops us less
the staring of the streets
and we see ourselves passing by
and so it looks
as if time
gets undone
and it gets
bigger
as the world
that was born
when we were born.

(Trans. by Aurelio Meza)

Armando Ayala Ochoa (1972) Won the 36 Punto de Partida Award.