Diego Isaias Hernández Méndez, Convertiendse en Characoteles / Sorcerers Changing into Their Animal Forms (detail), 2013, oil on canvas. Arte Maya Tz’utujil Collection.
The Washerwomen
Translated from the Spanish by Alan Britt_
_
The river’s washerwomen
hold their breasts of water
like babies enclosed
in round water jugs
and the water’s echoes
bear the curves
of their waists
it carries a moon’s jasmines
and spring’s threads
sitting
on the canoes
they was day after day
two withered leaves
on their vacant faces
undermine the horizon
and the water’s reflections
paint their naked bodies
with dark leaves and the sun’s silk
and in their hands
they hold roads
of water scales
surrounded by foam.
Nico Suarez is a young Bolivian born poet. (updated 1976)
Alan Britt is a poet whose recent books include Vegetable Love (March Street Press, 2009) and Vermillion (Bitter Oleander Press, 2006). (updated 6/2010)