Bark
From childhood on,
I've liked
to strip it loose,
to clean the trunk,
leaving exposed
green urgency
of another layer,
to feel beneath
my fingers
the tree's rectitude,
to feel it occupied
up there
in another world,
indifferent to my gnawings,
able to sustain itself
without bark,
able to recover
from whatever offense.
Translated from the Spanish by Kathleen Snodgrass
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