500 Kilometers

by Eduardo Bechara Navratilova (Colombia)
translated by Margaret Randall

Tinder says:
500 kilometers.
The distance between
the mesa
on this side of the hills
and your savannah
cut through
by a river,
this room
replete with paintings
and your garden
full of birds
singing to the morning.

We have always
been separated
by a mountain range
a river’s meanders
and clouds
swirling
in perfect
number.

The thread linking
your belly to mine
also describes
a perfect distance
from the line
of your thighs
the curve
of your cheeks
and the poems
that grow mangos
between my own.