#33 Next to God, by Julia de Burgos

Already we are in the beachless waters of love!

Our eyes, stretched out, will embrace the cosmos.

Our steps untied shall second the route of the highest leaves,

and there will be revolution in space.

Our fecund hands will bloody the wounds of the world’s poor

from the immense artery of the ideal in flesh.

The redemption of man will rise to our voices

and the absent shadows of the vanguard will tremble.

But over the convulsive and energetic years

we shall have fragile nights

stitched in calm.

(Like the dream dreams it

that advances in my emotion!)

I will rest in your eyes all the intense brilliance

of my hours in tears;

and you will love my arms

like a small child ties himself to his mother.

How close to God shall our steps rise,

contaminated by wings!

From “Song of the Simple Truth: The Complete Poems of Julia de Burgos” by Julia de Burgos, compiled and translated by Jack Agueros. (Curbstone Press: 524 pp., $21.95.) Copyright 1997 Reprinted by permission.