Manuel Alejandro Ceballos [Mexico]

 

The Circle of Death and the Overflowing of a Vase of Flowers

(The Chariot, Arcanum VII)

 
                                                                            …silence is calm like a circle
                                                                              but a circle has a center
                                                                              silence does not.
                                                                                       PIC ADRIAN
 
The sightless anthill,
MARABUNTA in a circle.
In the pupils of this madhouse,
madness spreads endlessly.
The charioteer leads the funeral procession
along a path without dwellers.
 
Faith is blind in this cult
that goes on a pilgrimage.
It is a collective suicide.
Its figure is a decanter
filled with valerian
that hypnotizes them,
binding them on this path.
While their femurs
spin in this wheel
of exhaustion,
some fall
to meet their death.
 
Its gallantry has been wounded.
A graveyard of minerals rises up.
A call radiates from the abyss.
The halalí ¹ is a spiraling, inquisitorial song.

 ¹A traditional victory cry used by hunters to signal the imminent end of the hunt, just as the animal is about to be caught or killed  
 
(Translation by Luz María López) 
(From ”Cosmogonía de un cuerpo pre mortem”, Malpaso Press, Honduras, 2024)
 
 
Somnambulism I⁸
 
Tell me about yourself:
harbor and mouth
where dreams collide
and offer me refuge
I gaze at the lighthouse,
the land where all is saved.
                                                                        —Sleepwalking
                                                                        takes hold of his shadow,
                                                                        and the journey back to the past continues.
 
And on the threshold of what is possible,
you arrive like a bird’s song.
You spill out into the mirror itself. 
 
(Translation by Luz María López)

(From “Desrealizacióm: morfología del recuerdo”, Ed. Conunhueno, Chile, 2024) 
 
 
Ballerina in D Major
(The Magician, Arcanum I) 
 
Your shadow is the movement  
that completes the pieces 
of an endless jigsaw puzzle.
You glide by 
and I gaze at your feet 
casting silhouettes: 
they stir my desire.
 
Ballerina, I implore you 
take me with you in the chassé
and my arms will wrap around your waist.
My fingers upon you
are eternal desire.
 
Ballerina: 
have mercy on me, 
turn your gaze 
towards the corner where I stand.
Show me your poem 
in the arabesque at the end of the dance floor.
Let my desire overflow, 
consume me.
 
Render me a collector of your footsteps 
and I will follow your paths.
Run towards me, 
into my arms that root themselves
to the final compass 
of the piece that bears your name.
 
(Translation by Luz María López)

(From “Cosmogonía de un cuerpo pre mortem”, Malpaso Press, Honduras, 2024)
 
 
Author’s Bionote:
 
*Manuel Alejandro Ceballos (Toluca, Mexico) is a writer, poet and cultural promoter. He studied at the University of Guadalajara and directs the publishing project Literatelia, the magazine Ars poética 1970, and the Mexico International Poetry Festival. His poetry collections have been published in Peru, Mexico, Guatemala, Bolivia, Honduras, and Chile, and he has also written plays in Mexico. His work has been translated into several languages and featured in literary magazines across Latin America. In 2017, he received the Toluca Municipal Youth Award for his cultural work.