- Don’t speak to me of liquidity, I’m consumptive,
debts and more debts accumulate - in columns of fear.
- I couldn’t carry the crushing mortgage
I couldn’t shake the bankruptcy that weighs like a hump in my back.
I live in hiding from my creditors,
like magpies they pursue my bounced checks,
my credit cards are sneering harpies
and if that weren’t enough there is an order out for my arrest.
- What a monstrous catastrophe!
From my autumnal checkbook hangs - a withered leaf.
- Who will help me in my hour
- of bankruptcy,
- who will move the stone that keeps me flattened
- at the bottom of this vault.
Translation of “Bancarrota.” From Cara de Hereje (Lom Ediciones, 2000). Copyright Manuel Silva Acevedo. Translation copyright 2008 by Daniel Borzutzky. All rights reserved.
