The Wall
I
Silence, total silence;
a uniformed silence
along with the speakers
the introductions
the dramatic announcements
the piercing screams
of the newspaper sellers
a uniformed silence
since homophony
doesn’t delete silence;
the approval, the clapping,
the hurrah don’t overpower silence
and everything is easily
approved in our days: decisions
that put the blame on previous
abuses and events
with which we are familiar,
deification of the major captains
but of the second in command too
executions of fighters who
they named traitors, and after
their death glory and honours
or simply rearrangements
of the accusations and hymns.
We constantly approved, we
the unbent before the enemy and
at the same time scared of what
it could become of our revolution
what it could become of us, our
efforts and that perhaps we could
stop serving it; for this we stopped
talking, we approved in silence
we kept silent in front of the attacks
even opposite glorious poets
we still kept silent in front of the mud,
we sunk in mud, we approved. And
the distances turned long, we never
heard of the sudden changes
promptly, yet we kept on
convincing our comrades, ignoring
that they had become leaders again;
when news reached us, a certain
commotion took place then finally
everything was analyzed, explained,
put on a line and the feverish conversations
continued, the doubts in the hallways
and the agreement in the meetings.
