The touch hurt me, It burned my skin, Childhood left its mark on me, With the caresses of the devil.
Mercedes Janeth Soto, an eminent poetess from Mexico, known for its rich culture and ancient ruins, shares her five poems
Mercedes Janeth Soto Sánchez (1994). Originally from Los Reyes, Michoacán, a Mexican state. She graduated in Law from the Jesuit University of Guadalajara. She served as coordinator and editor of Cardenal Revista Literaria in Guadalajara until 2023. In this same year, she presented her work at the II International Poetry Festival in Etzatlán, Jalisco. The writer has published some of her literary works in magazines such as Buenos Aires Poetry, New York Poetry, PorEscrito, Monolito, Sindh Courier, Atunis Galaxy Poetry, Abogacía, among others. She has presented her work at the XIII LEA Festival in Athens, Greece, 2021. She got the ISSSTE scholarship at the Interfaz Cultural Festival in Guanajuato, 2018, and she also won the first place in the English language poetry contest for the Universidad de Las Américas in Mexico City, 2013.
Playing in hell
The touch hurt me,
It burned my skin,
Childhood left its mark on me
With the caresses of the devil.
Ironically,
When I learned that
The sores appeased his pain in hell
I submitted to the demons,
I loved playing with them and not feeling anything.
One day I met one of those fallen angels,
And I discovered that someone had pushed him to the earth,
Someone broke his wings, his bones and all his good memories.
He was a good man, but in this place
Anyone forgets it.
***
San Pedro
You took me by the hand
At the same time
That the lights of San Pedro saw us to walk,
The sidewalks sighed
With the night wind
And your mouth recited
To the man of my life.
Time stopped
In the universe of your eyes
And it was into the darkness
That a new sun
Was born with your kiss.
***
Love song
That song resurrects me in you,
Suddenly I open the eyes that I had already open
But now alive.
And I breathe from the memories,
Of the sun’s rays caressing
Next to my fingers your face,
Of the night keeping silence
So that no one notices
Of what happens in your car,
Of the Sacramento trains still,
Waiting for what didn’t happen,
Of your eyes like two blue beryl lamps
Illuminating the earthly vault
That had formed in my pupil,
Surprisingly
I breathe again
I breathe
When my lungs are filled with you.
***
The lost map
Rest on my chest again,
And don’t let anyone find out about your electric look
When making love.
Let no one notice
That for you to touch a woman’s body
It’s like playing your favorite instrument.
Don’t let your gestures give away anyone else.
That the sea lives in your eyes,
But the waves in your body.
Let no one have the map
And I hope I can find you.
***
Almost something
I saturated my hours with vibrant cyanide
Of that capitalist love
To forget your name
I wanted to give myself more time
To know me in solitude,
“To be better”,
This in case you decided to leave completely
It could be a painkiller for ego,
In case the wait and respect
Only fueled the disappointment
But…
Maybe I was wrong for the last time,
And I was probably the one who wasn’t ready.
I opened my eyes.
The road began to pulsate without your blood,
And my body no longer burned in that little
But intense nest of memories.
I understood, that maybe yes, maybe someday
Or maybe never,
And it was then
That I let us free.
________________________
