A Homespun Love / Amor de entrecasa

Because this humble and homespun love
— just as you see it, simple, unadorned —
is what keeps our feet on the ground,
is what engenders the fruit of our nonconformity,
and throws us a lifeboard amidst the shipwreck.
Every so often our love blazes like thousands
of stars,
gets dressed up to go out and uncorks
bottles of effervescence, cases of laughter.
You see, every so often, when the moment
is right,
our love recalls that it is, like we are, a survivor.


Porque este amor modesto y de entrecasa
— así como lo ven, sencillo, sin adornos —
es el que nos mantiene con los pies en la tierra,
es el que engendra frutos de nuestro
inconformismo,
y nos tira un madero en mitad del nuafragio.
De vez en cuando enciende miles de lucecitas
y se pone la ropa de salir y destapa
botellas de burbujas y cajitas de risa.
Es que, de vez en cuando, cuando cuadra
el momento,
recuerda, él también, que es un sobreviviente.

Copyright 1992 by Alicia Partnoy. Reprinted from Revenge of the Apple – Venganza de la manzana, published by Cleis Press, with permission from Alicia Partnoy. Translated by Richard Schaaf, Regina Kreger and Alicia Partnoy.

This poem was originally read in the On Being episode “Laying the Dead to Rest.”

Reflections