Sand / Arena Poem by Luz EtchemendiGaray

With sand in my pockets
I return from the sea.
I then wanted
to build castles of nostalgia
in the sleepy city.
It was in vain,
for neither palaces nor cathedrals
are raised with empty saddlebags
and dreams in disarray.
They are built instead
with the unheeded tale
of sobs at a window
and the unrestrained laughter
of a child on the slide in a plaza.

Translated from Spanish to English by D.Ginhson with comments by S. Littleton.