Rafael Soto Verges

Existence

I’ve nothing to glorify! What image
or substance must be more mine
than this wonderful, stereo tide?

It seems like shadow from the wrong side.
It doesn’t mirror me in the fern, but casts light,
seeding me within and without.

I can’t say if it’s a green monster, but it keeps
the secret ripeness I now descry
in the blackest, lethal areas.

I’ve no idea if it’s fermenting, but it shakes
invisible stems and farmlands
when hoisting me immortal in the weeds.

It distances me from my dark side
when I put on its glass and intone
the magic song of existence.

— translated from the Spanish by Louis Bourne