Desafiando su historia

decidió hacer su hogar

entre los intersticios

de un caracol

El sol de la mañana

delató imperceptibles

brillantes carreteras

adornando el marco

de mi ventana

A mí, como a ella

me gustan los desafíos

Construí mi casa

en un desierto

guardo en ella

los objetos

que me llevan

al mar

El sonido del viento

en las campanas

de Galle

El olor a salitre

en los fósiles marinos

Los misterios del ámbar

o la insistencia en las piedras

En mi desierto

despliego a ton y son

las intrincadas maravillas

que el mar me entrega

Después de la tormenta

caracoles y troncos

imágenes imperfectas

de los bosques

abrazados

entre mis idas y vueltas

 
Son mi memoria

des-terrada

des-marada

des-bosqueada

 
Así llegó a mi ventana

este caracol con huecos

insistentemente arenoso

en su amarillento vestido

 
Ella, la araña

prefiere no colgarse

en los vértices de mi ventana

Ni demostrar astutamente

su seductora danza

 
Sino que

desafiando leyes

tatuadas en su origen

cautelosa va excretando

su camino

entre la grieta de la ventana

y su nuevo hogar va y viene

¿Qué guardará ella

entre los recovecos

del caracol?

Oscura y pequeña

descubre allí

una nueva forma

de ser araña

Spider

Challenging its history

it decided to make its home

in the crevices

of a snail

The morning sun

revealed imperceptible

bright highways

decorating my

window frame

 
I, like the spider,

enjoy challenges

I built my house

in a desert

I keep in it

the objects

that take me

to the sea

The sound of the wind

in the bells

of Galle

The smell of salt

in the marine fossils

The mysteries of amber

or the insistence of the stones

 
In my desert

I display with rhyme and reason

the intricate wonders

the sea gifts me

After the storm

snails and logs

imperfect images

of the woods

etched

between my comings and goings

 
They are my memory

un-landed

un-tied

un-forested

 
So it came to my window

this snail with holes

insistently sandy

in its yellowish dress

 
The spider, it

prefers not to hang

from the vertices of my window

Nor cunningly show

its seductive dance

But

defying laws

tattooed at birth

cautiously excreting

its path

between the crack in the window

and its new home that comes and goes

What will it keep

between the nooks and crannies

of the snail?

 
Dark and small

it discovers there

a new way

to be a spider

Dr Liliana E. Correa is a writer, adult educator, and cultural researcher. In 2012, she was awarded a Doctorate of Cultural Research from Western Sydney University. Her thesis, The Politics of Cultural Visibility: Latin American Arts Practices in Sydney, utilised empirical research grounded in theoretical and creative methodologies. In 2022, Spanish publishing house BABIDI-Bú published her bilingual short story La nena mágica, a collaboration with Mexican artist Mariana Caballero Coronado. 

Her work has been published in the Australian Multilingual Writing Project and the Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies. She is currently working on her second book for children and on the poetry collection Poesía en construcción/Poetry Under Construction.

Translation into English by Gabriella Munoz. She is a writer and the editor of Puentes Review.