Sitio Oficial de Lidice Aleman

REQUIEM FOR ALEJANDRA

                                       The cage itself has turned into the bird
                                                                    What will I do with this fear...
                                                                          ALEJANDRA PIZARNIK

I

Fear broke the windows
and waited for you
this time it brought the last word
split open the night
to spy your comings and goings.

So very late--
Latched onto your ear,
it had already devoured
your yesterdays
your tomorrows
the symbols    the fragile things

The Phoenix will not rise again
you have been robbed of its ashes
your shadow begins to dissolve you
you'll fall, now, drop by drop
into an eclipse
and say an Our Father
just in case

II

Don't be ashamed
don't give your love a code name
The stained walls
camouflage the tarantula well.

Don't hide your echo
write your alias in capital letters
you share the same charcoaled skin
the same blood in your knuckles

Run up the stairs two at a time
hurry up and dream
and don't look in the mirror
no one cares about the color
of your earrings

III

I've forgotten my voice
I can't scream for them to turn me off
just as I reach shore
I head back into the sea
veil my fear in angry howls
I'm hidden and unearthed
with one hand on the Cross

My lover will drink from my bones
write my name in placards
the road is long and painful
from this point on the wall is literal
(it should be easy to avoid)
and will make its appearance before nightfall

My lips and the rain betray me
the street     the word     the only desire
I want to break the indifference      the defeat
the ridicule leaves me pale
I am not the type to throw flowers
I fire caresses and rocks
they applaud and I don't hear a thing
suspended beneath the traffic light
while He calmly departs

IV

                                                              Silence is temptation and promise
                                                                                                 ALEJANDRA PIZARNIK

I bet that today
you won't see the silence in my hands
or the quietness I dressed up with
so I could talk to myself
and that you weren't     always     an instinct
It's here, my last shout
my calendar without stars

I have accepted the late arrival
many lovers   a single moon
no longer do I tolerate this madness of thinking
and longing     voiding me

Don't stop
someone expects you in the only moment left
I will continue, tethered to a park
the collection of fragments now waiting for me.