Inheritance

(Translated by Julia Horton)

I don’t want you to see, I don’t want you to see,
dear little boy,
the corpse of that bird, bathed in tar,
lying on the sand.

I’d rather scare you, I’d rather scare you
with other terrors:
phantoms made of foam, giants who bellow
secret sufferings.

Oh how I want to explain, dear little boy
that mankind is guilty
for all those dead bodies
sown in the sand all over the world.

It’s so hard to confess that the burden is yours
to defend the dreams
of the sea and the shore from every murderer
who asserts he’s their master.

Poet and human rights activist Alicia Partnoy is the author, translator or editor of twelve books and the chapbook Ecos lógicos y otros poemares. Her work is published in Spanish, English, Hebrew, Turkish, Bangla, and French. Partnoy is best known for The Little School: Tales of Disappearance and Survival, about her experience as a “disappeared” in Argentina in the 70’s. Partnoy is Professor Emerita at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. https://www.aliciapartnoy.com/