​You’d maybe converse
with smoke mixed up in fog
after being fire.

Maybe
with another poem,
with another word.

I don’t know why I sense you’re distance
and being distance
are road
on that train you’re the only carriage traveling aimlessly.

Carriage
I saw you treading on autumn drops,
verse nearby I felt the greenness of its words.

But you keep walking with your skin in rags,
letting the dust pierce your face
that dust they say is time.

Distancia

Conversarías tal vez
con el humo confundido entre la niebla
después de ser fuego.

Tal vez
con otro poema,
con otra palabra.

No sé por qué presiento que tú eres distancia
y siendo distancia
eres camino
en ese tren eres el único vagón que viaja sin rumbo.

Vagón
yo te vi pisando las gotas de otoño,
sentí junto al verso el verdor de sus palabras.

Pero tú sigues caminando con tu piel harapos,
dejando traspasar tu rostro con ese polvo
que se dice tiempo.
Paura Rodríguez Leytón (La Paz, 1973) is one of Bolivia’s most acclaimed living poets. Her books include Del Árbol y la arcilla azul azul [From the Tree to the Blue Blue Clay] (Argentina, 1989); Ritos de viaje [Travel Rites] (La Paz, 2004; Caracas, 2007, ed. digital); Pez de Piedra [Stonefish] (La Paz, 2007) Como monedas viejas sobre la tierra [Like Old Coins On The Ground] (La Paz, 2011) and Pequeñas mudanzas [Small Moves] (Colombia, 2017), which was the runner up for the 2017 Pilar Fernández Labrador International Poetry Prize (Premio Internacional de Poesía “Pilar Fernández Labrador” 2017). In 2022, Rodríguez was honored with Mexico’s prestigious Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Medal for Literary Excellence. Her selected poems, Instante claro [Moment of Clarity] was published by Circulo de Poesía in 2018. 
Janet McAdams is a writer, editor, and translator. Her translations of Bolivian poetry have appeared in Poetry, Poesía en Acción, Pank, Kestrel, New Orleans Review, Anomaly, and Cigar City. She is the author of three poetry collections and the novel Red Weather.