A Peruvian Autumn – Part 2 Borderline poem 10 by Jorge Ccoyllurpuma I’m tied to the ground like a sad child’s balloon or the smile of a drunk.I’m made out of cardboard and milk, of darts; I’m made up of feathers you don’t have but that I invented for you.I’m a stone at the window of God; I’m also the stone in your dirty window.I am a plastic kite and a boat in the bathtub.I’m a bathtub of hot water, with Pisco and eggs for your stomachache.I am, I’ll say it now, your dirty laundry.I’m tied to the sky by every fiber of December’s rain, I’m blue incense.I’m the unmovable afternoon right where you are. * From Para detener el tiempo (2013)* Translated by Jesús de la Garza, Martina Hoines and Pieter Odendaal a violet dawn before the great wilderness by Victoria Mallorga burning tireslavender grows down highways as we learn how to kiss in the backseatforget our hands, ignore the smog behind us thecity’s many eyes workforcelong men and batons readyfor the unapologetic labor of correcting wildlifebut us, we grow like foxtailsbullets rain dry over a bodyunable to hold blood,over bodies that meet againin the backseat whisperinglittle lovegrass, chantinguntil light collapses into our hands, until wildliferaises from my fingertipsand we know this isthe end of our running days as the melody of a floral lullaby bursts from the radio, overpowering the motor, the burning oil sirens howling kilometers close, hiding the smell of gunpowder that claws its way towards our little car.so you drive us cityboundyour nightshade smile, your kisses down the back of my handyour solar-powered heart, your warm cruelty turned againstthe burning asphaltthat trembles in waitforesees the blood,the final stand, the glistening warmth of our getaway car under vinesas you pour yourself into me kiss my hands until my fingertips overwhelmthe city bury usunderneath an impossible new wilderness. Ritual by Karina Medina At the height of my foreheadI picked up a coca leafi closed my eyesI looked at mandalas leaves.In the riteI took the painin my handsI left itat the root.A tear in the soul.I opened my eyeslike trailsI saw the river running away from mewith a dread of ancestorsthose that forced me to speakin another poem.I am left alonewithout leaveswithout mandalaswithout roads. Be Quiet by Emilio Paz Silence is a face.Has a cold lookThat penetrates the bones.Bones that are made of paper:WeakBrittleEasy to burnSilence is a face of sand.It melts in the hands of memory.But it always leaves a mark.Floral scent trailThat is confused with the stench of cemeteries:Decomposition accompanied by classical music.Virgilio watches over Dante’s silence.Dante consumes Beatriz’s silence.Beatriz is content with God’s silence.And God?Silently on the altarWhile the priest preaches.He preaches that is confusedWith what he wanted to sayBut that he never tried to say.Silence that is a dropThat starts a river.Rio who commits suicide in the sea.Everything returns to oneEven the wordsAnd silence is an eternal return. About the Authors Jorge Alejandro Ccoyllurpuma (b. Cusco, 1987): Poet and literary translator also known as Jorge Alejandro Vargas Prado. He has published poetry, short stories, and a novel. As a Quechua descendant, his creative work explores this ancestral Andean culture and language. Photo: Julio del Carpio Victoria Mallorga Hernandez is a queer Peruvian taurus, poet, and editor. Currently, she is an associate editor at Palette Poetry and an MA candidate in Publishing and Writing at Emerson College. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Revista Lucerna, Plastico, perhappened, Anti-Heroin Chic, Kissing Dynamite, and Thin Air, among others. Across the hemisphere, she moonlights as the chief coordinator of Literature in the Alternative Art Fair (ANTIFIL) and reviews books for La Libretilla, a Hispano-American project. Victoria has published two collections in Spanish, albión (alastor editores, 2019) and absolución (2020). Find her on Instagram or Twitter as @cielosraros. Emilio Paz (b. Lima, 1990) is a teacher of philosophy and religion, and a graduate of the Universidad Católica Sedes Sapientiae. He is the author of Septiembre en el silencio (Club de lectura poética, 2016), La balada de los desterrados ( Ángeles del Papel Editores, 2019) and Laberinto en versos (La tortuga ecuestre, n°394, 2018). He is the winner of the Marco Antonio Corcuera Foundation competition and the ninth international competition “El Parnaso del Nuevo Mundo” in the short story category. He has been published in various media in Peru, Mexico, Chile, Spain, Venezuela, USA, Argentina, India, Ecuador, Romania, Costa Rica, Sweden, Germany, Italy, Cuba, Uzbekistan, Bulgaria and France. His work has been translated into Romanian, French, Italian, Bulgarian, Uzbek, English and Tamil. He has participated in many international as well as national speaking engagements. He teaches philosophy and conducts poetry workshops. He has also published works on the relationship between poetry, aesthetics and education. He has participated in many international philosophical conferences.Photo: Mike Paredes Karina Joelly Medina Paico (Lima PERÚ – 1986) : Teacher, writer and editor. She studied at the Higher University of Applied Sciences (Advertising) and is currently studying Art Education at the National School of Dramatic Art. She has participated in certified dramaturgy, poetry and theater workshops dictated by the Cultural Center Spain. She has been published in the anthologies Dew of Poems (2017), Spring Verses (2017), Crystal Verses (2018) and Poetic Love (2019) of the Peruvian Society of Poets; as well as in the poetry collections The Danger of Being Alive (2018), Beside the Road (2019) and The sea doesn’t stop (2019). Her own published collections of poems are Pavo real (Ediciones Marginales – 2019) and Eterna estación (Pléyades Ediciones – 2021. She has worked as a copyreader and editor from a very young age. She is the editorial director at Pléyades Ediciones, her own company. Nowadays Karina Medina works as a researcher and compiler of Peruvian poetry. In 2021 she presented her Coral Collection project, which consists of four books of poems written by young and consecrated poets, Peruvian and Latin American. The first published Volume 1 is Ultimísima Young Poetry – 21 Peruvian female poets. Volume 2, Ultimísima Young Poetry – 21 Peruvian male poets, will be published this coming September. The other two volumes will be published in 2022.Photo: Biblioteca Abraham Valdelomar Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Like this:Like Loading... Published by fragmentedvoices A small, independent press based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK, and Prague, the Czech Republic View all posts by fragmentedvoices