La torre del árbol / Eugenio Montejo

The Tower of the Tree

                                                            to Juan Sánchez Peláez


      Green is the tower of the tree
and its wall murmurs.
The wind knows it will never win,
the clouds fall from the drawbridge,
the sun traps the walls, but it doesn’t pass.
Green is the strength of its tower
and unbeatable on the earth it’s erected
from the roots to the high battlements.
At night the nests close up
and outside the eye of the sparrow
reading his Hamlet
without being distracted guards the horizon,
meditating the prince’s story
until the final act.




{ Eugenio Montejo, Trópico absoluto, Caracas: Fundarte, 1982 }