Canción del Optimista

Amalia Moreno Restrepo

POESÍA DE PROTESTA is an exhibition featuring 10 Spanish poems written by Hispanic women. The texts all express a form of protest–political, economical, sexual, or social. Each poem has been interpreted by a visual artist, with curation by Cuban historian and art professor Gladys Garrote.

POESÍA DE PROTESTA es una exposición que presenta 10 poemas en español escritos por mujeres hispanas. Todos los textos expresan una forma de protesta, ya sea política, económica, sexual o social. Cada poema ha sido interpretado por un artista visual, con la curaduría de la historiadora del arte cubana Gladys Garrote.

Amalia Moreno x Noortje Stortelder

Song of the Optimist

A note to the rice hand grill and Cesar Vallejo

From sweating cement on the seeds of injustice
from the constance of rice trying to keep itself warm
from fasting with Faith or Hope or salted water
from working on a daily transit on the line of poverty
Absolute poverty, extreme poverty, dogmatic poverty
About the progressless comeback to the grave of the forgotten patriarch
Who gave his live for his grandsons’ breath
For the invisible roof tiles of the poor people from Peru
which, though it ain’t raining, they’re still needed
for the invisible fences of the Peruvian rich
which, though they don’t fence, they distance
for the pure poor, day and night poor
the most orthodox poor, the last poor
An enterprise that burns a failure that starts,
god associates
any devil gets his prayers
wakes up early despite the hangover
pours water on his neck
fever on his lips
thirst under the shade
and keeps going, half alive
half dead.

– 

Debuted at Refraction x Miami Art Week ‘22