THE SIREN’S SONG (May 18th, 2025)

A DROP FALLS
from the
aseptic
place of despair.

Some women laugh and
talk about their children,
their husbands,
say they’re hungry
and there are no
stretchers left
for the man
who just came in.

A younger woman
adjusts
an oxygen mask
over my face.

I know only I
am anchored
to this perpetual
instant of flesh:

I am the water
that trembles
because its container
shudders, tightens.

They just injected
something through the catheter.
My arm turns cold
and there’s nothing
to warm it.

There are no blankets here.
I am barefoot,
eyes shut.

I don’t know what time it is.
Time moves so
slowly
although everything
here is urgent.

There are no clocks, only
a drop
as long as a scream.

---

Arely Jiménez (Aguascalientes, 1992). Es poeta, feminista y paciente renal. Ha publicado libros de poesía como Madre Piedra y otros poemas (UAA, 2019), La noche es otra sombra, Metamorfosis de la O (Sangre Ediciones, 2020) y SiRenal (Arde Editorial Chihuahua, 2023). En el 2021 obtuvo Mención Honorífica en el 39° Premio Nacional de Literatura Joven «Salvador Gallardo Dávalos», en el área de narrativa con su libro Los árboles no son tan altos de noche.

Translation by Yasmin Rojas