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Friday, 30 July 2021

Afterwards - Homero Manzi

Afterwards…
the bloody moon and your emotion,
knowing that the end is coming
on a dark stormcloud.
Later…
unfathomably,
your eyes, so empty,
weeping painlessly.

And afterwards…
the enormous night
in the windowpane,
and you tire of life
and I long to fight.
Later…
your skin like snow
and in an airy absence
your pale end.

Everything returns from memory:
your pain and your silence
your anguish and your mystery.
Everything plunges into the abyss of the past:
your name, repeated,
your doubt and your weariness.
A shadow stronger than death,
a scream lost in oblivion,
a step back from the edge of ruin,
a song torn to pieces
that still remains a song.

Afterwards…
forgetting will come or it will not…
and I will lie so I can laugh
and I will lie so I can cry.
Clumsy
ghost of the past
dancing on a pile of intrigues
for a chance to forget.
And afterwards,
in the silence of your voice
the pain of solitude will come
and I will scream just to stay alive…
as though I flee from those memories,
repentant,
just so I can die.

Homero Manzi [Homero Nicolás Manzione Prestera] (1907 - 1951) Argentina
Translated by Derek Del Pilar

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