Dina Bellrham
DEVIATIONS FROM FAIRY TALES
      Translated from the Spanish by Fernando Iturburu and Alexis Levitin
 

I

the end of the forest
is an early fever
and the earth
has the weight of birds:
i’m lost
but
all the endings
are a forest
early fevers
very very light
 
(Snow White)
 
II

i would like to be where my eye once shined,
but when i come to see myself i’m still imprisoned
and my mouth seems a kaleidoscope;
and so i come back to this woman
disguised as myself.
 
she is exasperatingly new
and ultra-perfect.
 
(Dorothy)
 
III

i only remember words that are essential
like a particle of the void
the xylophone
 
silence
bubbles
 
it is because words are indispensable
 
it is terrible that they emerge
from dispensable people
 
(Cinderella)
 
IV

afternoon,
lightning.
 
I thought it was earlier
and awoke transparent on a leaf
 
(Sleeping Beauty)
 

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