The Absences That Do Not Return
LAS AUSENCIAS QUE NO REGRESAN
Zurima Zaldua
BODY
ARCHIVE
I had no place
to store my bones.
Only latent memory,
scars like folders without names.
My body
is an archive no one asked for,
but where I keep
every wound the world believed forgotten.
Here pain remains
like a photo without a date,
and time keeps arriving
as if it had permission.
PRISON
I did not come with wings.
I came with ribs
and skin.
The prison was not a place:
it was my body
before learning how to be born.
There is mud in my vertebrae,
language in my feet,
marks on my back
that belong to no one.
My body
does not need a key.
It already knows it is imprisoned
from before it learned to speak.
FREEDOM
Before knowing
what freedom was,
I already had it.
It was in scraped knees,
in open laughter,
in the brakeless bicycle,
in climbing trees
without thinking of falling.
The body
does not lie
when it is free.
MEMORY
From that childhood
I do not keep ideology.
I keep the sun,
the street,
the games I won,
clean laughter.
I keep a body
that was mine
before being claimed
by history.
LAST BULLET
I still work.
I still believe.
One project.
One possibility.
Not the last life.
The last science.
PRICE
Speaking
costs.
Denied visits.
Imposed absences.
Family
held
by ideology.
REFUSAL
I do not accept
silence.
I do not accept
guilt.
FREEDOM
No one
has the right
to possess
a life.
COLLECTIVE MEMORY
Grandparents
have died.
Mothers.
Fathers.
From pain.
From hunger.
From distance.
WAITING
I wait
for the day
the deception
falls.
FUTURE
Maybe
they will not be there.
But the children
will.
FINAL PROMISE
No ideology
is worth
the rupture
of a family.
That
is not negotiable.
DEFINITION
Exile
is not leaving.
It is not being able to return
without paying
with the body.
NAME
The system
is not abstract.
It has a face.
A signature.
A stamp.
CONFUSION
They called obedience
homeland.
They called thinking
betrayal.
Zurima Zaldua is a Canada-based author whose work explores consciousness, memory, the body, migration, and the structural tensions of contemporary life. Her writing blends reflective essays, fragmentary prose, and social analysis, combining critical thought with a clear and direct voice. In recent years she has devoted herself to developing independent literary projects, building a body of work that moves between personal experience and the observation of social and cultural systems. With a background in chemical engineering and a long career in scientific research, her writing bridges analytical rigor and human reflection. She is the author of several unpublished manuscripts addressing themes of culture, health, society, and memory. She writes originally in Spanish and also develops her work in English and French.
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Zurima Zaldua es una autora residente en Canadá cuya obra explora la conciencia, la memoria, el cuerpo, la migración y las tensiones estructurales de la vida contemporánea. Su escritura combina ensayo reflexivo, prosa fragmentaria y análisis social, integrando pensamiento crítico con una voz clara y directa. En los últimos años se ha dedicado al desarrollo de proyectos literarios propios, construyendo una obra que dialoga entre la experiencia personal y la observación de los sistemas sociales y culturales. Con formación en ingeniería química y una larga trayectoria en investigación científica, su escritura une rigor analítico con sensibilidad humana. Es autora de varios manuscritos inéditos que abordan temas de cultura, salud, sociedad y memoria. Escribe originalmente en español y desarrolla sus obras también en inglés y francés.
