[Erín Moure (Calgary/Montreal)]
XXXII (Dog Days)
by César Vallejo, tr. Erín Moure (canicule of June)
999 calories.*
Rhummmbl Trapperrr ach… chazz
Meandering u of the briouuuche vendor
spinfaffling deep into the ear.
Here’s to ice-cubes! But no.
Here’s to whoever budges the least.
Here’s to the happy medium.
1,000 calories.
The gringo firmament goes blue and laughs up
its massive languor. Down
goes the duped sun and jaggles those noggins
most chill.
Go cuckoo: Rooooooo iiiis……
soft roadway, thirst-rippled,
heads right to the beach.
Air, air! Ice!
If only the heat (_________ Best
that I clam up.
Even the pen-tip
I’m writing with finally goes bust.
Thirty-three trillion three-hundred and thirty-
three calories.**
*A measure of the heat needed to raise the temperature of 1 g of water by 1 degree centigrade.
**33,000,000,000,000,333. It’s too bloody hot. Hot as Paris in summer, hot as Montréal on June 23. I’m getting out of here.
