As Though the Wound Had Heard

Mara Pastor

'Words rarely fail us. Rather, it’s often the other way around. A poem like Mara Pastor’s “Man” reminds me of how much we undercut and burden them with the task of unidirectional sense-making. It lodges in my mind—parasitic, tapeworm-like—for its odd humor, unsettling ambiguity, and refusal to budge. “The Busts of Martí” is a comedic take on polyvocality. María José Giménez’s translations capture the quirks of Pastor’s playful sensibility, and what ensues is buoyancy.'- Mónica de la Torre

Mara Pastor (1980, San Juan) currently resides in Ponce, Puerto Rico. Her books include Poemas para fomentar el turismo (Secta de los perros: San Juan, 2011), Children of Another Hour (Argos Books: New York, 2014, with translations by Noel Black), and Arcadian Boutique (Punto de partida: Mexico, 2015), among others. She has also worked as editor of various publications, including the anthology Vientos Alisios: Contemporary Puerto Rican Poetry for the Mexican magazine Punto de Partida, and Polibea (Madrid, 2017). She is currently a university professor, activist, and yoga instructor in her native country.