Isn't it strange birds exist? These things that move through a realm forbidden to us? In a thousand different ways and with such languages!

Some people ignore birds, and others watch them endlessly. They can't believe it. They are full of meaning, of sense, of metaphor, of hidden messages and oracles, isn't that obvious? They demand that we use words for them: "look how it puffs up when it sleeps, yellow and plump like me"; "I remember it above all, in the way it died"; "you know it's impossible to hear words when other beautiful things sound like this."

Valeria is one of those who looks and sees. She looks at birds because she sees people. Her poems work like a foundry: the aerial and human material converge to forge poems that speak with beauty. They chirp this: this is who we are, this is how we love, this is how we die; this is how we remain trapped or fly far away, to return or never to return.

Laura Wittner

• 25 pages
• Spanish

Valeria Mussio (Tres Arroyos, 1996) grew up in Bahía Blanca and lives in Buenos Aires. She holds a degree in Literature from the National University of the South. she directs Matrerita, a digital publishing house that publishes young poets from across Latin America. she is included in the eco-poetry anthology Ruge el Bosque (The Forest Roars). she won the Buenos Aires Young Art Biennial in 2021 and 2023 in the Poetry and Literary Projects categories. she is part of the Isla Invisible (Invisible Island) project. she has published Hasta Pronto, querida (See You Soon, My Dear) with Peces de Ciudad Ediciones (Argentina), Nuestros refugios a medio armar (Our Half-Assembled Shelters) with Editorial Liliputienses (Spain), and Un perro no sabe que puede destruir (A Dog Doesn't Know It Can Destroy) with Alquimia Ediciones (Chile/Argentina). A menudo en jaula was awarded by the Buenos Aires Young Art Biennial 2023 in the “Literary Projects” category by a selection committee composed of Laura Wittner, Santiago Loza and Lara Segade.