I should die in miscommunication

breed fantasies unregulated, losses innumerable

Mejor hablar español

o componerme en nahuat

I could speak and not offend

I would stop a symphony

and find closure

erase bus stops

and listen to my sister, the violent rain

waiting for your seven days

This isn’t a poem of love

or hate

but our days traveling in gray sand

black night beaches and post-birthdays

to speak to you

I could hide and not love

die in anonymity

vanish in the ’80s with the rest of my ghosts

but I can’t stop searching engines for your name

our last two hours in memory always remain

one, two, three feels like love

a tree broke that morning

nimeztneki

and fell onto the road

Lady Nestor Gomez is editor-at-large at Asymptote Journal and a translator of Salvadoran literature, and lives in Concord, California.