Rocío Cerón
& Dana Delibovi (translator)
Omens, Stone Upon Stone
The voice was a thread
A peak where women and men submerged their weeping among death rattles
babble a barking dog the red-hot rumor of a mass grave
murmured between June 19, 1298 BCE and June 19, 2058 CE
it inhabits a brief, impassible silence it inhabits a viewpoint
Everything advances and retreats Every retreat is an advance
Thebes Cuchumá the knotwork of territories
Shame burns in the house / the face of others
here
here, only globular heaps nebulous
forms energy
interstellar dust creating future stars
dark matter
The legacy of an object transported from another time
The aural call of the wind and of a woman buried deep as a seed
The Milky Way
Atria’s pious gaze toward terra firma
slipping, burying what’s buried inside,
you are everywhere and nowhere in the day
The voice was a thread
gravel, out of place invisible filament that bears witness to monuments and decay
rusted messages aim where the past crumbles a bow toward the future
a bow of the head before the tongue that supplies everything
a bow before the ancestral dromedary blood
a bow with the whole body, to re-inspect
the ants
remnants
[Electric ripples ride plastic neural waves. The cave is the future of the eye’s digital pupil. Everything advances and retreats. Every retreat is an advance. The landscape and its nebulous lines transform into an uncertain drop of life. The persona.]
Presagios que son piedra sobre piedra
Era hilo la voz
cima donde mujeres y hombres hundían el llanto entre estertores
balbuceo ladridos rumor ígneo de fosa común
murmullo entre el 19 de junio de 1298 a.C. y otro 19 de junio de 2058 d.C.
habita un breve silencio no transitable habita un sesgo
Todo avanza y regresa Todo regreso es avance
Tebas Cuchumá Anudaciones territoriales
La vergüenza arde en la casa / rostro de los otros
aquí
aquí, sólo cúmulos globulares nebulosas
formas energía
polvo interestelar que creará estrellas
materia oscura
El legado de un objeto transable desde otro tiempo
llamado aural de viento y de mujer enterrada hasta la simiente
Lacteus orbis
piadosa mirada de Atria hacia tierra firme
resbalándote, enterrando el tú enterrado adentro, tú estás
en todos lados, y tú no estás en ningún lugar del día
Era hilo la voz
gravilla descoyuntada invisible filamento que atestigua monumentos y desplomes
misivas de oxidado apunte donde se desmorona el pasado inclinación de un futuro
inclinación de cabeza ante la lengua que lo abastece todo
inclinación ante la sangre ancestral dromedaria
inclinación del cuerpo entero para observar de nuevo
a las hormigas:
restos
[Ondas eléctricas surcan olas plásticas, neurales. La cueva es un futuro de pupila digital. Todo avanza y regresa. Todo regreso es avance. Transformación del paisaje y sus líneas nebulosas en gota incierta de vida. Persona.]
Rocío Cerón is a Mexico City-based poet, essayist, and visual sound artist. Cerón is the author of fourteen poetry collections, including Nudo vortex/Vortex Knot (Literal, 2015), Borealis (Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2016), Imperio/Empire (Ediciones Monte Carmelo, 2008), and Diorama (MacNally Jackson-Díaz Grey Editores, EUA, 2013; translated by Anna Rosenwong and winner of the 2015 Best Translated Book Award from Rochester University). Her work has been awarded the Owen National Poetry Prize and the National System of Art Creators of Mexico Prize. Cerón was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2023 and received the Michael Rothenberg International Poets Grant in the same year. She has released three sound poetry albums, Sonic bubbles, Miiuni, and Speculari, and her sound, visual, and performance poetry pieces have been exhibited in international venues and museums including the Southbank Centre, London and the Museum of Modern Art, Mexico. Julio Ortega, one of Latin America’s most acclaimed literary critics, chose her as one of the best women poets of her generation. The poem in this issue of ballast comes from the bilingual edition of Ceron’s book, Áurica Speculari, forthcoming from El Martillo Press.
Website and social media
Facebook: @DioramaRocioCeron
X: @ARocioCeronZ
Instagram: @laobservante
Dana Delibovi is a poet, essayist, and translator. She has published a collection of translations and critical essays, Sweet Hunter: The Complete Poems of St. Teresa of Ávila (Monkfish, 2024); she is also the translator of the forthcoming bilingual edition of Rocío Cerón’s Áurica Speculari (El Martillo). Delibovi’s work has appeared in After the Art, Apple Valley Review, Asymptote, ballast, Ekstasis, Noon, Presence, Psaltery & Lyre, Salamander, and many other journals. She is a 2020 Pushcart Prize nominee, a 2020 Best American Essays notable essayist, a 2024 Best of the Net nominee, and co-winner of the 2023 Hueston Woods Poetry Contest. Delibovi is consulting poetry editor at the literary e-zine Cable Street.
Website and social media:
https://danadelibovi.wordpress.com/ and https://sweethunter.org/
Bluesky: @danadelibovi.bsky.social