Any Icarus

by Karla Marrufo Huchim

Translated from the Spanish by Allison A. deFreese

i never knew her name
but i watched her die in the clearest instant

heard her body
open, the crack of bones
at the end of her agony,
her blood awake and spreading
with the thickness of fruit ripe with time.

nor did i know her gaze;
for when i arrived at her side
a heavy mist i had never known
until that moment was all that remained.

i never knew the rhythm of her footsteps
the roughness of her tongue
the snap of air when she barked

i only knew death’s precision at the end
and the bad omen
implicit
in the flight of any Icarus.