In Coral Bracho’s poem, translated by Forrest Gander from Spanish, we witness the thoughts of the poet’s mother, who died of complications from Alzheimer’s disease. The mother vividly portrays the terror of getting lost in a once capable and functioning mind and body. At first, she quickly answers her own questions with confusion and confidence. Soon the questions disappear, as she begins to describe the environment around her in a state of imaginative and surreal speculation. Selected by Victoria Chang
(Intuitions. She)
By Coral Bracho, translated by Forrest Gander
My suitcase is not there,
but neither does the room.
In which room? I haven’t been in any
room here, but there had to be one.
Did I sleep in it?
There were people, but I don’t know if I was there.
Where did they leave their bags?
Two of them just passed me
before heading down the hall.
But in which one? All the corridors are white,
and they seem padded.
It must be those two who brought me here.
They probably went to take a shower,
and no doubt they assume that I know how to get there,
or in the bedroom,
or in a more central corridor
it must be somewhere around here,
where are the suitcases going,
next to each other on a contraption of red tubes.
But who knows if mine is there too.
I hear the noise of the showers.
They are fully open and the water is gushing out
and swirls, but there is something dirty
which does not flow.
First I have to find my suitcase,
although there is no place in the showers to put it.
The people who entered are no longer there.
I’ll wait here, see if anyone comes by
who can tell me how to get back. Or see if they
want to guide me.
Victoria Chang is a poet whose new book of poems is “Trees Testify to Everything” (Copper Canyon Press, 2022). Her fifth poetry book, “Obit” (2020), was named a New York Times Notable Book and a Time Must-Read. She lives in Los Angeles and teaches in the MFA program at Antioch University. Bracho Coral is the author of numerous poetry collections, including “Firefly Under the Tongue” (New Directions, 2008) and “It Must Be a Misunderstanding” (New Directions, 2022), in which this poem appears. She is the recipient of the Aguascalientes National Poetry Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Xavier Villaurrutia Award, among other accolades. Bracho was born in Mexico City and still resides there.
#Poem #Intuitions
