I write verses, gentlemen

I write verses, gentlemen, I write verses,
but I don’t like being called poetess,
I like wine just like bricklayers do
and my assistant talks to herself.
This is a fun world,
things occur, gentlemen, that I do not disclose,
cases occur, but houses are never given*
to the poor who cannot pay.
There are still spinsters with dogs,
there are still married men with lovers,
to hard tyrant rulers nobody says anything,
and we read there are dead people and turn the page,
and our necks are stepped on and nobody revolts,
and people hate us and we say: life!
This occurs, gentlemen, and I must speak up.

(Gloria Fuertes, 1954)
Translated by Mertxe de Renobales Scheifler

* word game in the original Spanish: “se dan casos, aunque nunca se dan casas”