Transit

Written by Annabel Villar

Translated from the Spanish by the poet

Narrated by Kristine Doll

Uruguay

 

Breathe, do not stop breathing.

 

Catch the air in your lungs,

let it travel through your blood.

Feel life walking through your body,

the magma that heats bones and soul.

 

When you inhale and exhale,

you will perpetuate the cycle of life,

at the same time outdated and perennial,

definitive and passenger.

           

Play your role

in the natural rhythm of things:

come from the earth and return to it,

naked and alone, without shroud or tombstone,

without sandals and without cypresses.

 

After the last breath

leave everything and take flight without luggage,

without fears and burdens to the light

-immutable and enigmatic-

that waits and despairs.

 

Breathe, do not stop breathing.

 

Annabel Villar hails from Montevideo, Uruguay. She is a poet and cultural activist who is a founding member Liceo Poetico de Benidorm; Associate Academic and Honorary Member American Academy of Modern Literature; Director of the “Azul” Poetry Collection and International Poetry Festival “Benidorm & Costa Blanca”;  and founding member of the Student Academy of Contemporary Art (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Chair No. 6 “Gabriela Mistral”). Her works include: Viaje al Sur del Sur (2015), Cantar la Vida (XVI Provincial Poetry Prize of Aspe, Alicante, 2015), Meditación (bilingual Spanish-English, 2017) and Claustrofobia & Vértigo  (bilingual Spanish-English, 2018).