Bolano - Spanish Poetry

She Reigns Over Destruction


What draws me to you.
The dream that becomes a nightmare.
The murmur of the sea and of rats
In the abandoned factory.
Knowing that after everything you're there,
In the darkness.  Alone and with open eyes.
Like the leprous bird, the filthy bird
From the scary stories of our childhood.
Steady.  No: undulating, like the lights
Beyond the forest, beyond the dunes.
The lights of cars
Going round the bend then disappearing.
But your eyes aren't like
The drivers' eyes.  They
Slip peacefully toward home
Or death.  You are fixed in darkness:
Without lights or promises.  The rats watch over your gaze.
The waves watch over your gaze.
The wind twirling pinwheels at the boundaries
Of the forest draws me to you: scarcely
An unintelligible signal on the dog path.



trns. by Laura Healy



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