of all the faceless animals none can see my left side
my face is in your mouth
as a tongue bit by memory
it does not hurt and I know
every pain is sufferable
every pain is a word
evidence the body requires to know itself
this floor is full of animals
faceless
lipless
eyeless
& my brother is
the least dead of them all
he robbed my hands to construct a bed
he sleeps on protected from the fire
he dreams of our mother not tossing children to the fire
he dreams of perfect animals
all winged
all gilled
all evolving each second
in order to become
more beautiful than their progenitors
II
I am your enemy without having sought to
this is our new order
I erased you from the world
your mother premonitions you as a wound
In your ravings you desire to become the ocean
the ocean has no ends
to hold onto and consume
my enemies beg for water but where does it exist?
I must drink for them
At my side they bleed out in a thousand dreams
VII
I declare myself unable to possess this body
dense
filthy
with all its noise it dies bit by bit
everyday
I celebrate as they set it ablaze
I celebrate my escape
observing
the miracle of flesh floating into ash
safe and pure
I apologize for the stench
fat ripped from flesh as rain
this is not how I imagined burning angels
& their skin ascend to god
José Carlos Agüero (Lima, 1975): historian and writer. Researcher on issues of political violence and historical memory. He collaborated with the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the National Coordinator of Human Rights and the Place of Memory, Tolerance and Social Inclusion. He has published—among other texts related to disappearances, political violence and public education in Peru—the essay Los rendidos: Sobre el don de perdonar (IEP, 2015), the poetry book Enemigo (Intermezzo tropical, 2016), the set of stories Cuentos Heridos (Lumen, 2017), and Persona (FCE 2017), published by Fondo de Cultura Económica that was awarded with the 2018 National Prize for Literature in the Non-fiction Category. In 2021 he published the essay Cómo votan los muertos (La Siniestra 2021) and the English translation: The Surrendered: Reflections by a Son of Shining Path (Duke University Press 2021).
Alonso Llerena is a Peruvian writer, visual artist, educator, and MFA candidate at the Bard: Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts. His poetry manuscript La Casa Roja was a 2021 National Poetry Series finalist. He is a Tin House alumnus and has received fellowships from The Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing and Brooklyn Poets. His poetry has appeared in Cream City Review, The Acentos Review, Magma Poetry, Temporales, ctrl+v journal, and elsewhere.
