Lighthouse Keeper
Other times, in the night and when the sea is rough,
this table stoops its back like a calm elephant ready
to narrate you a fairy tale. Don’t think of it as inactivity
or forgetfulness; there’re lots of things to do here too,
responsibilities and duties as they say.
We have to carry the oil, to clean the lighthouse lamp,
to clean the glass space around the lamp, to coil
the metal wire as if winding a gigantic clock that
will strike its hours like a bell in the tempest.
You see,
the lighthouse is like a bell tower, once you light
the staircase you’ll see it too; and when you light
the lamp is as if you chimed the bell. And we have
to keep vigil to make sure its movement doesn’t
stop; each light has its own sound and you hear it
without seeing it, even when you sleep.
Libros Libertad 