I want you to know
one thing.

You know how this is:
if I look
at the crystal moon, at the red branch
of the slow autumn at my window,
if I touch
near the fire
the impalpable ash
or the wrinkled body of the log,
everything carries me to you,
as if everything that exists,
aromas, light, metals,
were little boats
that sail
toward those isles of yours that wait for me.

Well, now,
if little by little you stop loving me
I shall stop loving you little by little.

If suddenly
you forget me
do not look for me,
for I shall already have forgotten you.

If you think it long and mad,
the wind of banners
that passes through my life,
and you decide
to leave me at the shore
of the heart where I have roots,
remember
that on that day,
at that hour,
I shall lift my arms
and my roots will set off
to seek another land.

But
if each day,
each hour,
you feel that you are destined for me
with implacable sweetness,
if each day a flower
climbs up to your lips to seek me,
ah my love, ah my own,
in me all that fire is repeated,
in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten,
my love feeds on your love, beloved,
and as long as you live it will be in your arms
without leaving mine

It isn’t what it seems, life isn’t but a dream.
A porous umbrella, a selfish Cinderella,
A deafening silence, an unfaithful alliance,
An inaudible roar, a dry liquor store,
A tell-all magician, a tell-all politician,
A stuttering thespian, a boy-crazy lesbian,
A sober alcoholic, a glad melancholic,
A deflated balloon, a dried-up lagoon,
A real-life oasis, a movable stasis,
A saddened hyena, a fat ballerina,
A one-item list, a sixty-pound mist,
An illiterate writer, a cowardly fighter,
A concrete bed pillow, a smiling willow,
A ****** librarian, a caring barbarian,
A fresh-water ocean, and a straying devotion.

Two hours ago it wasn't in thoughts
Two hours later I'm dead
Currently I'm caught in a crossfire
An hour ago it was premeditated
An hour later I'm bleeding
Tomorrow I'm laying in a morgue
Underneath a white sheet
Yesterday I was asleep
Dreaming of flying
Now I'm here
A week from today
My body is burning
Ashes being scattered
Last week I smelled the roses
And said someday