Poems by Esteban 2003

PLANTS, ALERT

Be careful plants!
I don’t want to cause
a spilling of your sap.

I would like to walk among you
and I don’t want
in any way to be disturbed.

I would like
to walk among you
in peace.
 

AWAKENING
I can hear a colossal river
A river full of raging tigers
a river full of hurtling stones.

They fall thundering
I can hear
a colossal river
a river that falls frenzied
until I awaken.



A NIGHTMARE OF SMILES
I’m dreaming
that I smile with three jaws
that I greet you with three hands
that I submit to questions without answers
that, by watching the corn shaking in my plate
I can predict a tidal wave
in the mountain range.

I’m dreaming
that answers outnumber questions
and that with a mere five words
I can terrify the public.



TOCCATA TO THE PUBLIC
Tell me,
when darkness came
where were you, or you? Or you?
Do you want to become my witnesses?
The eyes hidden in the wall?
Do you want to become part of the secret?

Tell me
where were you,
on the days of the fires?
On the day of the holocaust?
On the day of punishment?
On the day of sentencing?
On the day of torture?

Where were you
when they knocked at the door
when they raped the moon?
When they smashed and shot
and burned and desolated?

Tell me your role
How did you help?
How did you feel?
Did you smile facing the fires?
Did you relax so close to the precipice?
Did you relax so close to the precipice?
Did you give vent to a careful feeling?

Or did you remain silent
realising
how fortunate you were?