It’s Hot In The San Joaquin Valley At 5 In The Afternoon Poem by Javier Campos

It’s hot in the San Joaquin valley at 5 in the afternoon
It’s a dream in flames
A banner in embers that comes down from the mountains

From the window in a bar a woman contemplates
The rippling heat
Trains full of cars passing by

Leaning on her chin
She smells the hot earth

Behind her
I drink
A cold can of beer

I dream about the ardent honey of that girl

She keeps on watching the illegals
Down on their knees working

They’re like beings hidden in the fruit trees

The girl goes flying out the window
Like a great drowsy bumblebee
Over the fields
That smolder with ripe strawberries.

(Translated from Spanish by Nick W. Hill)