Gacela of the Dark Death
I want to sleep the dream of the apples,
To withdraw from the tumult of cemetries.
I want to sleep the dream of that child
Who wanted to cut his heart on the high seas.
I don’t want to hear again that the dead do not lose their blood,
That the putrid mouth goes on asking for water.
I don’t want to learn of the tortures of the grass,
Nor of the moon with a serpent’s mouth
That labors before dawn.
I want to sleep awhile,
Awhile, a minute, a century;
But all must know that I have not died;
That there is a stable of gold in my lips;
That I am the small friend of the West wing;
That I am the intense shadows of my tears.
Cover me at dawn with a veil,
Because dawn will throw fistfuls of ants at me,
And wet with hard water my shoes
So that the pincers of the scorpion slide.
For I want to sleep the dream of the apples,
To learn a lament that will cleanse me to earth;
For I want to live with that dark child
Who wanted to cut his heart on the high seas.
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