Long Listed for the 2023 Griffin Awards
Repayment
My childhood slipped through old cabinets covered with dust
cart drivers cursed while they turned slowly and my belly
was sick of the insatiable hunger.
The rachitic boy was dreaming in the basement; I believed
in passing musicians whose misery was more heavenly than
heaven while I slept with deaf women since I didn’t want
to miss any of the signs around me.
What was the use of my sins then? It was raining and no one
listened to me, only the hollow echo from the stables, where I
saw the teary old man sitting on his wet mattress and asking
for his doll, I then understood I wasn’t alone and when
the Day of Judgement came I had to repay all the gold.
The end was so unpredictable with the smoke signaling to me
over the train station with the crazy people looking for a piece
of chalk and those pale men with the drums who arrived when
there wasn’t any compassion left.
Then, when evening came, I emptied my shoes of all the roads
and lay down to sleep while the wet silent fields travelled
with the moles.
Libros Libertad 