[Those days were beautiful.] But how sad the dusk that followed. – Friedrich Hölderlin

 

I used to be a boy and my kingdom was day.

The world arrived to me in lighting bolts:

mi madre

murmuring and the military footsteps

of my father going up the stairs.

 

In my room, I cared for a wolf and a lamb

and an odour of camphor

arose until the evenings became smoke.

 

Those were lovely days.

 

Rows as well, and doors, and barks.

 

Even so I was a boy and on the table

my glass of milk glowed like a candle.

 

Suddenly night fell across my brow

and there I was, a man, barefoot, mid-path.