Thursday, April 4, 2013

You Fell Ill Twenty Seven Years Ago


The transmigration of souls brings solace
On these bleak days. The sky began weeping
Before the moment of his death. Rumbling
Discontent spreads, the walls begin to shake.

Now I see my labyrinthine brother,
He smiles at my footsteps; still he is blind.
Once he saw all things that had ever been
In a phase of the moon, and afterward
He could no longer find a woman there.

Jorge, was it a mercy that you died
Before my birth? Were you waiting for me?
Is it peculiar that we share so much,
Or am I to find answers in layers,
Like the hexagons of a library
Where I have spent my life reading one book?

Luis, your work is composed of brilliance:
Clever indirection of common thought,
Solemn touching of myth upon a page;
The manner in which words can tessellate
And change meanings in earlier stories-
Did you predict or prefigure my life?

Borges, my favorite film critic died today-
But always your ghost haunts, and no others.
Is it black magic or an absolute truth
That your face will greet mine in silver mirrors?

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