Bree Alexander reading ‘Cruzando’

Contigo y sintigo I began
until I arrived at a point sin ti

Eres guap@ became
¡Qué guap@ eres!
and in a particular moment
¡Qué guap@ estás!

I was not sure if el cielo era azul
o naranja until I realised that
era azul, y estuvo naranja
from time to time

Me siento en otra dimensión became
como si estuivera en otra dimensión

vino vino vino…Qué?
Yes…it’s missing la uve

Panuelo panuelo
¿Alguién tiene un pañuelo?

Rosa rojo Roma reloj rama perro
(don’t confuse it with pero o porro)
repeat ‘til you have it
on the tip of your tongue

Ascensor, piscina (con θ)
Yeah…I will practice that sound
a little more

Estar ser estar ser
el problemael sistemael poemael idioma

Conservativo…quiere decir conservador
don’t confuse estar caliente y tener calor
Voy a por ella y tengo una de cosas esas

aunque sea un ridículo
aunque es encantador

I love the subjunctive
for those subtle distinctions
es una pasada

Menos mal que sigue el aprendizaje
forever
I will never reach perfection
pero cruzando sigo

Translation and notes

Translation and notes (opens in a new page).

Bree Alexander (also Lika Posamari) is a multi-form Australian writer whose work has appeared with Eureka Street and Westerly, among others. She spent three semesters (2009-10) studying at the University of Granada, Spain before getting her C2 DELE from the Instituto Cervantes and her love of Spanish continues. She was shortlisted for the Overland Fair Australia Prize 2018 (NTEU category) and she has a poetry chapbook called The eye as it inhales onions (in case of emergency press, 2018).  She tweets sporadically @LaBree_A and blogs (mostly about fims) at Roundly in the Eye.