*
You were like the young
fig tree by the cliffs.
And when I passed by
you filled the sierra with sound.
Like the young fig tree,
resplendent and blind.
You are like the fig tree.
The old fig tree.
I pass, and silence
and dry leaves greet me.
You are like the fig tree
that lightning struck old.
*
Love rose up between us
like the moon between two palmtrees
that never embraced.
The intimate murmur of the two bodies
surged toward a lullaby,
but the hoarse voice was torn out with pincers,
the lips were hard as stone.
The longing to encircle moved the flesh,
lit up the kindled bones,
but as they tried to stretch out, the arms
died
in
each other.
Love, the moon, passed between us
and devoured the solitary bodies.
And we are two ghosts who search for each other
and find ourselves far apart.
Translated from the Spanish
by
Don Share
