I LOOK FOR LIFE IN DEATH
from the Span­ish of Miguel de Cer­vantes

I look for life in death;
health, in infir­mity;
in prison, lib­erty;
in suf­fo­ca­tion, breath;
and faith in treach­ery.

But des­tiny (which I
have never pros­pered by)
has issued its decree.
“Demand what can­not be,
what can, I will deny.”

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(originally published in Leviathan Quarterly, and later included in Poems for a Liminal Age, an anthology in support of Médecins Sans Frontières.