PLAZA DE ESPAÑA

 

The tired afternoon falls

on a rhythm of palm trees

clad in spring

human, a scattered voice.

Above, the moon rounds

its silver & enamoured

spins its gratitude

- starry light swerves

between the coupling of harnesses -

through gothic cypresses

that toll the bells.

 

MARKET

 

Rivers of joy full of the very thing

played only by this Stradivarius of beings

trampoline that launches us from the pole

of artifice to pristine contact

 

with the virgin, packed bustle

of naked Africa... Protocol

of baskets & tables, bloodclots, deceit,

yucca & the solemn fraternity in the act

of being emptied and filled in between laughter

drawing coins without currency,

rain of ancient sun on their backs.

 

Lean out - by the skin of the day -

into that open custom of exchange,

a life running among skirts.

 

POINT CRISTINA & POINT FERNANDA

 

Album of doves

that comes to coo

the sister couple

who sleep in the sea.

The air in the trees

starts to play

at being mime & comb

kiss & madrigal.

Light. Calm. Silence.

Waves, nothing more.

... & the two sisters,

wives of the sea.

                             (1967)

 

ELEGY IN STONE

 

I speak to you of my destiny when I die,

one afternoon, beside the virgin fountain,

at the edge

of my final memory.

I hope you will say:

'His life was to a stone

as a song is to a lark. Exactly.

You left it to the alien mime

& the spark jumped - flint -

of a hollow smile

withering at its core.

He offered you his life, firm on the platter

of his friendship, full of itself, yes, to the very brim.

You had to tell him: "This is heavy"

& your hands gave out under the bulk

to the tug of the earth.'

'Take my life' - he said to you - 'beneath the flesh of my easy smile'.

Then his life was a dry leaf

in the arms of the wind...

 

You will also say: 'On his shoulders the heads

of friends stumbled over the edge

of fierceness...'

 

Later you'll fling me

- like a stone -

to the heart of oblivion.

& I will live out the sentence

I will die standing like the trees

I will leave this opaque dolmen that I am

planted in the earth.

 

& I will stay standing

                            numb

                                   alone

                                          like a stone.