Poetry
Three poems
The dilemma of writing a few verses
The dilemma of writing a poem without light,
without the amenities of paper and ink
without the digital keyboard
but with memory correcting each verse
like a clock tired of telling the time,
a fallen rhythm into language
in the calm of the dawn.
Only then, re-reading it
from the blue caressing
the dew on the glass in my window.
Only printing it in the flight
of the last waking dream.
Look back to where the wound is
(Volver la mirada donde está la herida)
To Patty
Look back to where the wound is
And let the day clean it, let the night lick it
With shadows that come to surround you with calm or pain.
The open wound arrives like a clock from the past
Anchored in your bleeding skin between the bones
Of what you were yesterday, tangled up today.
The dry word on numb lips.
Breathing is a cascade of howls falling
Through the blood, through the open sides of the skin.
“When a star sinks into a black hole”. Ernesto Cardenal read
This verse to me before I left Managua.
Life is a table set up for us to live the day
To Gina and the gardeners at Roma M’s Garden
1
I wait for the call of your green leaves
Lorca’s rushed canto
of that fruit which will come
floating in the mystery of water
in the depth of roots
who kiss the light of day
on the lips of the father sun
we are fruits of those warm aromas
that feed our souls
and make us love the simple mystery
of each verse growing in the broccoli
from the garden where I live
2
a dry leaf falls in the verse
the ink moans in its texture
giving the winter a melody
the rain tunes its violins
the verse gives me a silhouette
rolling like a tear on the window
This article was first published in the print edition of The Saturday Paper on May 1, 2021 as "Three poems".
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