An Exchange with Roberto Bolaño (Chile, 1953-2003) in the Mexico City Archives

by Lindsay C. Sidders

Violence is like poetry, it doesn’t correct itself.
You can’t change the path of a switchblade
nor the image of dusk, forever imperfect.
b

bb
Amidst these trees I’ve invented
which are not trees
am I.

[R.B.]*

violence is like poetry, it cannot be mimicked.
you cannot replicate the singular bruise on her throat
nor the vision of dusk, of calor, of empire, imperfectly recorded forever.
b

bb
inside a forest of dead Mexicans
which are not Mexicans but paper
am I
?

Lindsay C. Sidders

 *Roberto Bolaño, The Unknown University, trans. by Laura Healy, (New York: New Directions, 2013), 140-141.