Los recuerdos / Emilio Adolfo Westphalen

The Memories

The memories disintegrate
so slowly — in oblivion—
A few of them are reborn suddenly
by inertia or exhaustion.

A new gathering of asemantic “poems”
Trifles and Pamplonians —(flowering).

Twenty-eight salvos of disordering.
Relaxing humor of all theologies.

Domiciles sponsored —by the suicidal venture.

It seems we see —myriads of extinct stars.
They also affirm reality is a miniscule portion
of boundless emptiness.
We thus find out about occurrences
from trillions of years ago and touch
as solid what’s nearly a pure hole.
Will we take them as lucubrations
of the intellect or fantasy?
As pleasant as breathing-in
the sea breeze or grasping the elegant rope
of any little bird or insect.

The distant rowers—
in suspense in the night.

The offenses endured
there’s no way to repair them —
resentment burns unceasing
until destroying the entire soul.

A whirlwind of inaudible percussion

Rant and deceive —
you will save your life and darken your honor —
there is no risk.

It was still possible —to bribe the wind.

The infants of the desert
improvise new ideas to trace the map
of all the existing oases
in the world.

Epiphany of the siege and conquest of the mirage.

Arrival to the oasis like arrival to the door
of paradise only the door.

Who will you find on the untraveled
perceptible roads of the sea
or the desert?




{ Emilio Adolfo Westphalen, Simulacro de sortilegios: Poesía completa, Madrid: Visor Libros, 2006 }