Feature image by Leonardo Drew, 20P, 2012. Handmade papers with stenciled pigment, 36 x 67 in, edition of 6.

They were left out during the transplant.
A whitish, fleshy tangle
like something a little obscene.

I thought of transformations,
of lost galaxies, of intestines.
Then, when they scratched me, only
of what you would say.

We took fresh dirt,
I set the roots carefully
and we added more soil.
All the surrounding space
seemed to expand and adjust.

I envied them in silence
because they were starting something.

Luis Munoz
Luis Muñoz is the author of five poetry collections, most recently Querido silencio (Dear Silence) and Limpiar pescado: Poesía reunida (Cleaning Fish: Collected Poetry). He has received several prizes for his work, including the Generación del 27 and Ojo Crítico awards. For ten years he was the literary advisor for the Residencia de Estudiantes in Madrid, and since 2012 he has taught in the MFA in Spanish Creative Writing program at the University of Iowa. He divides his time between Iowa City and Madrid. Photo by Emma Steinkraus.

Curtis Bauer
Curtis Bauer is a poet and translator. His most recent collection of poetry is The Real Cause for Your Absence (C&R Press, 2013); his recent translations include Eros Is More, by Juan Antonio González Iglesias (Alice James Books, 2014), From Behind What Landscape, by Luis Muñoz (forthcoming from Vaso Roto Ediciones in 2015), and Baghdad and Other Poems, a bilingual chapbook of poems by Jorge Gimeno (forthcoming from Poets@Work Press in 2015). Bauer is the publisher and editor of Q Avenue Press Chapbooks and Broadsides, and Spanish translations editor for From the Fishouse.