Leire Bilbao: Removing heads

Removing heads

There are 
women's skins that are 
stickier than the smell of scales 
There are 
feminine hands that go right to the guts 
without knowing how to empty the insides 
There are 
bloods that mingle on one's lap 
There are 
fish that have one's husband's expression 
There are 
gills one puffs and pants to remove 
There are 
bodies that have the shuddering of the waves 
There are 
those that go to bed with the sea 
as with an unfaithful lover 
There are 
women 
that cut the heads off the fish as if removing their own.


© Leire Bilbao  
© Translated by Sarah J. Turtle & Iñaki Mendiguren 

Patience

Do not ask me to be as loyal as mirrors 
if you cannot see yourself before you, 
if you cannot see right inside me 
as through a window resigned to staying open. 
  
I am no lizard between cracks, 
I have been taught to stay put. 
  
I pass the days patiently, 
unaware I am resigned  
to hanging on to the house my father gave me. 
  
I know nothing of other's pain unless it is mine. 
From my perspective I tell you 
not to ask me to be as loyal as mirrors, 
I will not move 
insofar as my breath orders me to stay. 
  
I have been taught to stay put.


© Leire Bilbao  
© Translated by Sarah J. Turtle & Iñaki Mendiguren

Bleeding II

I've stained my fingertips with blood 
and doubtfully raised them to my mouth. 
This blood that shuns my body 
has no bitter taste. 
My nipples ache 
as if asking for lips. 
I don't want yours, 
I don't want anyone's 
I keep them for me. 
  
My inside beats inside demanding answers, 
And I've rested a hand on my breast. 
You've asked me why I sometimes understand  
a lioness better than I understand you. 
Now you know why, when my breasts are beating,  
I won't let you touch them, 
and why I keep them for me.


© Leire Bilbao  
© Translated by Sarah J. Turtle & Iñaki Mendiguren
 

I don’t want that

I don't want a mother country that will bury me, 
that will put what we yearned to be in my mouth. 
  
I don't want a love that will exhaust me, 
that will rise to my neck, only to take revenge. 
  
I don't want a mother to protect me 
if I'm not going to have her at my side when time passes. 
  
If I have no mother country, no love, no mother, 
whither shall I return?


© Leire Bilbao  
© Translated by Sarah J. Turtle & Iñaki Mendiguren