[XCIII]
Si alguna vez tu pecho se detiene,
If there comes a time when your heart stops,
si algo deja de andar ardiendo por tus venas,
if something warm and ardent ceases plying your veins,
si tu voz en tu boca se va sin ser palabra,
if your voice leaves your mouth but not as words,
si tus manos se olvidan de volar y se duermen,
if your hands forget to fly and go to sleep,
Matilde, amor, deja tus labios entreabiertos
Matilda, love, let your lips stay parted
porque ese último beso debe durar conmigo,
because that last kiss must linger with me,
debe quedar inmóvil para siempre en tu boca
must stay motionless forever on your mouth
para que así también me acompañe en mi muerte.
so it accompanies me as well in my demise.
Me moriré besando tu loca boca fría,
I will expire kissing your wild cold mouth,
abrazando el racimo perdido de tu cuerpo,
clinging to your body’s lost cluster of fruit,
y buscando la luz de tus ojos cerrados.
and seeking out the light of your closed eyes.
Y así cuando la tierra reciba nuestro abrazo
That way, when earth returns our mutual embrace
iremos confundidos en una sola muerte
we’ll go confounded in a single death
a vivir para siempre la eternidad de un beso.
to live forever the eternity of a kiss.
Veinte poemas de amor y una canción desesperada. Cien sonetos de amor
1924, Pablo Neruda y Herederos de Pablo Neruda
1994, Random House Mondadori
Cuarta edición en U.S.A: febrero 2004
[English translation is mine.]
(c) 2020 JMN
EthicalDative 
The Rhetoric of Figments
A classic mnemonic for spelling “graffiti” is that it “doesn’t have two fucking titties.” And the classic graffiti on locker room urinals is “A lot of pricks hang out here.” These durable tropes capture the sophomoric tenor of Chris Malone’s venom:
“Congratulations to the state of GA [Georgia] and Fat Albert @staceyabrams because you have truly shown America the true works of cheating in an election again!!!” Mr. Malone wrote. “Enjoy the buffet Big Girl! You earned it!!! Hope the money was good, still not governor!” [Posted Tuesday night, January 5, 2021]
(Neil Vigdor, “‘Hateful’ Tweet About Stacey Abrams Costs University Football Coach His Job,” NYTimes, 1-8-21)
“Fat Albert,” a 2004 movie, is based on a figment of Bill Cosby’s imagination.
“… Because of the high school setting and gentle boy-girl crushes that partially drive the story, Fat Albert will have more appeal for middle grade kids and tweens.” (www.commonsensemedia.org)
Driven by the right-wing figment of election fraud, Chris Malone, an arguably grown-up white man, traduces “Fat Albert“ into a body-shaming label applied to a Black woman almost elected Georgia governor in 2018, and whose fight against voter suppression has recently helped put two new Democratic senators in national office. “Enjoy the buffet Big Girl” garnishes the spite with misogyny.
This is a taste of only one dish of Coach Malone’s rancid smorgasbord, but there’s no point in gorging on blind fury.
As an act of speech violence, Malone’s sally is garden variety invective of the sort fired gutlessly from the sniper roosts of social media. Its only distinction, other than having cost “an assistant and offensive line coach for the Mocs” his current job (spoiler: he’ll find another), is to add context to the myriad acts of physical violence carried out in Washington D.C., only hours after his tweet, on January 6, 2021.
(c) 2020 JMN