Pleno verano / Ramón Palomares

Full Summer

                                                             To Federico Moleiro


Now I’m really going to sit down
I’m about to be stone I’m about to be tree
Lying here already I’m about to be grave Tomb I’ll be
We’ve already spent so many hours going in circles
Look —one says— I’m not that little speck that rises from the ground
I am earth
But after a while I’ve become a beetle
“Hey Wait up I’m on my way
I’m just starting to shake things out”

This has been nothing but storm for over hundred years
The reverberation comes out of everywhere
They bite from everywhere
People say words are losing their soul
that they only know how to name deaths
And I wake up so tired
The heart tastes like thirst to me.

Soul
touch me here because I’d like to open this house of mine for a while
I want to shake it out
let the burn come out
Touch me I’m alone
this has been burning for over a hundred years
Look at the ashes
the bare earth
It’s as if it were about to rain but the water doesn’t fall.
So much time has passed since I’ve seen anything but the stumbling of the ghosts
My mother calls me from an old war
there she is sitting amid some ruins A few stones
And those are the dogs in the fire
the dogs that squeal in the fire
Let us rest, they say
Let us rest this is nothing more than a death
But we want an honest death
that door.

Believe me I won’t disturb you
All I want is to lie down
And watch everything alone
Because the doors to the sky
Are a black gate
I already know there’s no greenness
because I’m already tired
Look there’s plenty to complain about in this house
where pots are clanging all the time
along with the dog winds

I know quite well that everything is remnants
but lay me down anyway
and when you see those windows filled with leaves and little branches
May music come out of the rooms

—Soul—
when you say to rain
Call me! —I’ll come from wherever I might be!
But right now in this dry plaza
Pass me a damp rag
I’m boiling!




Adiós Escuque (1968-1974)




{ Ramón Palomares, Vuelta a casa, Caracas: Biblioteca Ayacucho, 2006 }