SURVIVE - SOBREVIVIR

Denisse Vargas -Bolaños is a Bolivian poet and writer. She is a member of the feminist literary collective Las Juanas and SLAP (Spanish and Latin American Poets and Writers). She was also part of the Invisible Presence Project. Her poems and short stories have appeared in anthologies, fanzines and magazines such as Unravelling Memories, Visitantes, A New Voice: Emerging British Latino Writers, Flawa, Latinx Literary Fanzine, Voices and Magma. The following poem SURVIVE, she write under lockdown.
by Denisse Vargas -Bolaños
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SURVIVE SOBREVIVIR

Survive to endless nights,

long rituals made of walks,

familiar faces behind a window

soothing the loneliness

 

Survive the day

 without futile battles

against fear, singing

‘Abbracciame’ on balconies,

 thousands of windows open in unison:

 

 i Resistiremos !

 

Survive together

with bodies separated

 by invisible frames

that are nothing more

than meters of distances.

 

 Survive with news

from distant lands,

en barrios with common stoves

aroma of carbonada,

 tortillas, polenta,

locro, sancocho, j’aka lawa,

 

Survive in houses

with unsealed doors,

in rooms with walls

not as enclosures

 but as a surface that holds.

 

Survive inside

remembering us alive

 dreaming of

intertwined crowds

without masks

Sobrevivir a noches infinitas,

ritos hechos de caminatas,

manos detrás de una ventana,

templando la soledad.

 

Sobrevivir al día sin batallas inútiles

con el miedo, cantando

Abbracciame en balcones,

miles de ventanas se abren al unísono

 

 

i Resistiré (mos)!

 

Sobrevivir juntas, con cuerpos separados

por tramas invisibles

que no son más que metros

de distancias 

 

Sobrevivir con noticias de tierras lejanas,

en barrios con fogones comunes

aroma a carbonada, tortillas, polenta,

locro, sancocho, j’aka lawa

 

Sobrevivir en casas

sin aldabas,

ni habitaciones minadas,

sin ninguna mujer acorralada

 

Sobrevivir adentro

memoriandose vivas,

soñando con multitudes

entrelazadas, sin máscaras.

Denisse reads SURVIVE as part of Fuerza London - a film commemorating the Latin American community's experience during COVID, through music, dance, poetry and real life stories. 

View Full film below

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