15 I linger, now, before the mirror, searching for the traces of your hands, the paths that, so often, Your fingers have travelled. I linger, now, before the mirror and I know that, in silence, you await me.
18
I am shadow then,
but there is no breeze,
and on my lips the winters
accumulate.
I am shadow then,
about to shout.
by Agnès Agboton
Translated by Lawrence Schimel
From VOICE OF THE TWO SHORES
by Agnès Agboton
translated by Lawrence Schimel
published by flipped eye publishing (2023)
Reprinted by permission of the author, translator, and flipped eye publishing.
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Agnès Agboton was born in Benin but has been living in Spain for over thirty years. She writes in her mother tongue, Gun, as well as in both Spanish and Catalan. Her collected poems, Voice of the Two Shores, translated into English by Lawrence Schimel, won a PEN Translates Award and is a Poetry Society Translation Selection.
Lawrence Schimel is a bilingual (Spanish/English) American writer, translator, and anthologist. His work,
which frequently deals with gay and lesbian themes as well as matters of Jewish identity, often falls into the genres of science fiction and fantasy and takes the form of both poetry and prose for adults and for children.