Avant-Garde
for the Collector of Nests
My dear friend is in dark meditation,
his soul in sorrow, I can tell
He is praying to the Gods he knows
the elephant-headed Ganesha
Son of Siva and Parvati
The remover of obstacles
Heis calling my name in Tamil
French Creole Spanish
Sanskrit even inAramaic
He is a citizen of the world, you know
Nevertheless an outsider.
He leaves a voice message
He hardly notices he is speaking in French
Even though he is not in Haiti anymore
“Bisous”, he says before his mellow voice
Is lost again in his dark meditation.
And I cannot help the thought
Of each of his beloveds who have
heard his sweet sad mouth saying
Kisses instead of giving them.
His mission has sent him
Far far away
And his island is about to sink.
We would never know
If his body will rest in peace
At the bottom of the sea along
With the remains of Atlantis
Or if a brand-new spacecraft
Would bring him back home finally
As we would never know for sure
How much were the Russians involved
In Mexico’s elections nor in any other’s
And we would have to accept
The fact that while Frida nagged Diego
About his affair with her sister,
The Flower Girl, his ex-wife, the groupie,
She was getting laid with Trotsky.
Ana Márquez
Ana Márquez is a Mexican poet, essayist, cultural and art writer. She is author of Sitios de Espera, a collection of poetry about desire and waiting. Her poems, essays and articles have been published in important newspapers, magazines and anthologies from Mexico and Spain such as La Jornada, Periódico de Poesía de la UNAM, and Región sin donde. She has an MA in Comparative Literature from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and a BA in Spanish Literature from Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey. She has certificates in Art Writing from Sotheby’s Institute of Art.