No. 85 / Diciembre 2015 - Enero 2016

Alterpoesía núm. 85:
Codepoetry (Segunda parte), David Rojas

If you were a bluebird / Si fueras un azulejo, Juliana Spahr
Neuropoesía

Alterpoesía núm. 84:
Code_poetry;// the structure behind, David Rojas
 

If you were a bluebird / Si fueras un azulejo
 

Por Juliana Spahr


Began with a list.
A bird. Reed cormorant.
Added a fish and a monkey. Hingemouth. White throated monkey.
Added because.
Because the six dorsal and anal fins of the hingemouth and its two
teeth too and also its swim bladder like a lung, covered in alveoli.
Because the silvery wings, longish tail, and short head crest of the
reed cormorant.
Because the white throated monkey, with its red belly and its white
legs.
Added the phrase the principle of relation.
Because it was with the principle of relation that the Niger Delta came
to teem.
So the hingemouth with its six dorsal and anal fins and its two teeth too and also its swim
bladder like a lung, covered in alveoli, swims.
So the silvery wings, longish tail, and short head crest of the reed
cormorant dives down to considerable depths in the Delta and also
dives to feed, as it tends to do, in more shallow water, bringing slow-
moving mormyrids and cichlids to the surface.
So the white throated monkey, with its red belly and its white legs,
bangs objects against the ground, throws sticks.


Then added another bird.
Eurasian spoonbill.
Added a crab and a fish.
Cleistostoma kuwaitense. Mudskipper.
Again added because.
Because the Eurasian spoonbill with its dark legs, occasionally
grunting and trumpeting.
Because the cleistostoma kuwaitense building a semi-permanent mud
hood over the entrance to its burrow.
Because the mudskipper digging a deep burrow then hiding in it
during high tide, a polygonal territory surrounded by dams, and
defended against rivals, yet also shared with digging crabs.
Added the phrase the principle of relation.
Because it was with the principle of relation that the Kuwait Bay came
to teem.
So the Eurasian spoonbill with its dark legs, grunts and trumpets,
sweeps the end of its partly opened bill from side to side as it wades
through shallow water.
So the mudskipper builds its burrow beneath the mudflats, defends
its territory, keeps a pool of water so as to also engage in surface
activity.
So the cleistostoma kuwaitense, using the same mud of these mud
flats, builds a semipermanent mud hood.


Then another bird.
Pelican.
Added a mammal and a fish. Bottlenose dolphin. Red snapper.
Returned to because.
Because the gregarious pelican, traveling in flocks.
Because the bottle nose dolphin, remembering and comprehending.
Because the nibbling and the picking of the red snapper with its
short, sharp needle-like teeth.
Returned to principle of relation.
Because it was with the principle of relation that the Gulf of Mexico
came to teem.
So the gregarious pelican hunts, hunts cooperatively, plunge dives
from high up so as to stun the fish, scoops them up, and then also
breeds, breeds colonially, in trees, bushes, in the ground, around the
gulf.
So the dolphin talks, talks, over thirty distinguishable sounds.
So the red snapper spreads itself out in the artificial reefs of oil
platforms, the smaller fish in the upper part of the water column, the
larger in deeper areas.



I am waiting.
Said this out loud.
Said to no one in particular.
Said we are waiting.
Some of us are waiting.
Waiting for the assembly of fish.
Waiting to be complete.
Waiting to storm the waters.
Also waiting for the assembly of trees.
Waiting to be complete.
Waiting to be infiltrating the land.
And waiting for the assembly of animals.
Waiting to be complete.
Waiting. Waiting.
Waiting for the assembly of birds.
Waiting to be complete.
Waiting to fly the sky dark.
Waiting for the impossible.
Said waiting.
Meant wanting.
Wanting to fly the sky dark.
Wanting to be complete.
Wanting the principle of relation.
Wanting for the six dorsal and anal fins of the hingemouth and its two
teeth too and also its swim bladder like a lung covered in alveoli to be
with the red snapper as it nibbles and picks with its short sharp
needle-like teeth to be with the bottlenosed dolphin hunting as it
makes squeaks and whistles and leaps from the water, slaps tail on
the water’s surface to be with the reed cormorant as it dives down
into the water with a characteristic half-jump to give itself a more
streamlined entry and then once there under the water propels itself
with its feet and sometimes with its wings to be with the pelican as it
dives down so as to submerge below the surface, snaps up prey,
surfaces, water spilling from the throat pouch before it swallows to be
with the Eurasian spoonbill as its head moves back and forth as it
holds its bill in the shallow waters of marshes rivers lakes flooded
areas and mangrove swamps deltas estuaries tidal creeks and coastal
lagoons to be with the mudskipper in and out of the water as it is
walks on land too to be with cleistostoma kuwaitense as it builds a
semi-permanent mud hood over the entrance to its burrow to be with
the white throated monkey, cheek pouches full of food.
Wanting to be together.
Hingemouth and red snapper and bottlenosed dolphin and reed
cormorant and pelican and Eurasian spoonbill and mudskipper and
cleistostoma kuwaitense and white throated monkey and me too. I
mean us. Together.
Together. Water in one hand. The right hand.
Together. Sky in the other. The left hand.
The earth. Together.
Together. Wanting become forests.
Together. Wanting become grasslands.
With the unfeathered legged ostrich and the equal lengthed toed
osprey and the pygmy hippopotamus.
The small things also.
The sulphate reducing bacterias.
The foraminiferal species.
Sandbanks. Swamps. Edges of the open forest.
Wanting to be coming to be possibility gathering.
As it happened with blood cockle gathering when the women went to
gather blood cockles and the cockles were covered in oil.
And then began another sort of gathering.
Gathering so as to be seizing.
Seizing a boat.
Dividing into groups.
Occupying airstrips, helicopter pads, oil storage areas, docks.
Singing all day and night.
Dancing ridicule too.
Chanting of threatening songs.
Attacking of stores and prisons.
Knocking down of telephone poles and severing of wires.
Wearing palm leaves.
Slowly at first.
One at a time.
One location at a time.
And then more.
From four hundred one day to four thousand the next.
Wanting to be coming to be possibility gathering.
As it happened.
The women and the women-identified of 1789 and 1871 and 1917
and 1918 and 1929 and 1969.
Sometimes they had just a drum and churchbells, then kitchen
blades, and then suddenly ten thousands.
Sometimes they began with stones and snowballs and then they
turned to attack police stations.
More.
Always more.
For more.
Like how the white throated monkey does it, five or six at the
beginnings, then more gathering up to thirty.
But not stopping then.
Gathering like the silt too.
Traveling through the circuits that already exist.
Traveling with the ease of oil tankers.
From Banias in Syria, Tripoli, Ceyhan in Turkey.
Through the Neutral Zone to the terminals at Mena Saud and Ras Al
Khafji.
Through Umm Said.
Through Das Island and Jebel dhanna.
Arjuna, Balongan, and Cinta, and Widuri.

Traducción de David Rojas

Comenzó con una lista {
           un ave [Microcarbo africanus]
           un pez [Phractolaemus ansorgii]
           un mono [Cercopithecus erythrogaster]
} creada porque sí. Porque {
           el pez [Phractolaemus ansorgii] {
                      seis aletas dorsales y anales, dos dientes y vejiga natatoria cual pulmón,
                      cubierta de alveolos
            }
            el ave [Microcarbo africanus] {
                      alas plateadas, cola alargada y pequeña cresta
            } y
            el mono [Cercopithecus erythrogaster] {
                      cuello blanco, vientre rojo y piernas blancas
            }
}.
Conjuntó la frase el principio de relación.
Porque fue con el principio de relación que
la delta del Níger {
           el pez [Phractolaemus ansorgii] {
                     seis aletas dorsales y anales, dos dientes y vejiga natatoria
cual pulmón,                   cubierta de alveolos
           }nadando
           el ave [Microcarbo africanus] {
                     alas plateadas, cola alargada y pequeña cresta
           }descendiendo a profundidades considerables de la delta,
descendiendo como      suele hacerlo en aguas más superficiales,
trayendo mormíridos y cíclidos a la        superficie, y
           el mono [Cercopithecus erythrogaster] {
                     cuello blanco, vientre rojo y piernas blancas
           }golpenado objetos contra el suelo, arrojando palos
} rebosó.
   

Se agregó {
          un ave [Platalea leucorodia]
          un cangrejo [Cleisostoma kuwaitense]
          un pez [Oxudercinae]
} de nuevo porque sí. Porque {
          el ave [Platalea leucorodia] {
                    de piernas oscuras
          } ocasionalmente gruñendo y graznando
          el cangrejo [Cleisostoma kuwaitense] {
        
          } construyendo una cubierta semipermanente de lodo en la
entrada de su      madriguera y
          el pez [Oxudercinae] {
        
          } cavando una madriguera profunda y escondiéndose durante la
marea alta, un     territorio poligonal rodeado de presas, defendido de
los rivales y compartido     con los cangrejos
}.
Conjuntó la frase el principio de relación.
Porque fue con el principio de relación que
la bahía de Kuwuait {
           el ave [Platalea leucorodia] {
                     piernas oscuras, gruñidos y graznidos
           } sacudiendo el extremo de su pico lijeramente abierto mientras
camina por las     aguas superficiales
           el pez [Oxudercinae] {
        
           } construyendo su madriguera bajo la marisma, defendiendo su
territorio,     conservando una pileta de agua para involucrarse en la
actividad de la superficie, y
           el cangrejo [Cleisostoma kuwaitense] {
        
           } usando el mismo lodo de la marisma, construyendo una cubierta
semipermanente     de lodo
} rebosó.


Y luego {
           un ave [Pelecanus : pelícano]
           un mamímero [Tursiops : delfín]
           un pez [Lutjanus : pargo rojo]
}.
Restituídos porque sí. Porque {
           el ave [Pelecanus : pelícano] {
                    gregario
           } viajando en parvada
           el mamímero [Tursiops : delfín] {
        
           } recordando y comprendiendo, y
           el pez [Lutjanus : pargo rojo] {
                     dientes cortos y afilados como agujas
           } mordisqueando y colectando
}.
Restítuidos al principio de relación.
Porque fue con el principio de relación que
el Golfo de México {
           el ave [Pelecanus : pelícano] {
                     gregario
           } cazando, cazando cooperativamente, zambulléndose desde lo
alto para soprender     a los peces, sacarlos, y criando, criando en
colonias, en los árboles, en arbustos, en     el suelo al rededor del golfo
           el mamímero [Tursiops : delfín] hablando, hablando más de
treinta sonidos     distinguibles, y
           el pez [Lutjanus : pargo rojo] repartiéndose a lo largo de los
arrecifes artificiales de     las plataformas petroleras, los más pequeños
arriba, los más grandes en lo     profundo
} rebosó.