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Coconuts

By Estrella del Valle (translated by Toshiya Kamei)
Winter 2019 | Poetry

Coconuts are brown outside

but very white inside,

they were once used to

frighten children, but fell into disuse

after the 1980s,

you understand, Mrs. Brown.

Probably native to the Pacific

Islands, but nowadays coconuts

are cultivated all over the tropics,

especially on the coasts of Mexico

and in some parts of this city,

where laws have been made

to reclaim the white

within all of us.

Cocos

Los cocos son negros por fuera,

pero por dentro son muy blancos,

en algún tiempo fueron utilizados para

asustar a los niños, pero cayó en desuso

después de los años ochenta

—you undestand, mrs. Brown—.

Probablemente sean nativos de las Islas

del Pacífico, pero hoy en día el coco

es cultivado en todos los trópicos,

especialmente en las costas de México

y en algunos lugares de esta ciudad,

desde donde les ha dado por elaborar

leyes para poder rescatar lo blanco

que todos llevamos dentro.

Estrella del Valle, a native of Córdoba, Veracruz, now lives in El Paso, Texas. Her most recent poetry collection, Calima: CAution LIve aniMAls, was published in 2018. Her poems have appeared in such venues as Isacoustic, La Canasta, Rogue Agent, and Somos en escrito.


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