Poems Page 9


DESPACHA, QUE DISPIÉRTAN

Hurry up, they're waking, what's that in the dish?
A crooked crust, a rind of fat, perhaps a fin of fish -
Bellows up the fire, scrape the pewter clean,
We'll have a snack at midnight, be it fat or lean

Other things they leave for us, the morsels of their lies,
The sour crumbs of cowardice, the love that they despise -
How we love to cook them and gobble them with grease
We render from their self-esteem, a gobbet if you please

Be quick my broom is quivering, it wants to taste the air,
And also there's a dreamer here who dreams that he's at prayer,
And if he should bestir himself he may take such a fright
To think he's had an evil dream - he might

So let's prepare a meal of them before they think to pray,
Then all aboard, the night is black - straddle and away!


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NADIE NOS HA VISTO

No one's seen us, and the wine
Is deeper than an ocean, dense
As summer seas, as blood and brine -
No one sees us, drink at once

Drink it more and drink it so
That all their casks will ring like drums,
Drink them till they're damp and shallow,
Drink them dry, for no one comes

Demon dry as bones, as sticks
Dry and bloodless as we are -
When a beam of sunlight licks
The eastern wall we will go far

Across the world, behind the wall,
Among the rafters, still and meek
Until the beasts of midnight call -
Wait! I hear the hinges squeak

Silent laughter, it's a soul
Lapping at its drinking bowl


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LO QUE PUEDE UN SASTRE!

Any skillful tailor can
Make a stump look like a man -
Hooded warnings, stiffened arms,
Wood is all but it alarms

It can buy and it can sell
Souls, they say, to bliss or hell,
Robe and rope around its waist
Curses cast for every taste

Hovering behind the head
Devil birds and imps of dread,
There's a rider, legs astraddle -
Cacodemon on an owl

There's a flock - a skein of geese?
Angels of an unfrocked priest
(Wings unneeded since they fly
Like the speckles in your eye)

Some mistaken souls devote
Nine novenas to a goat,
Others make the demons laugh
Worshipping a golden calf

Even wood can snare the heart
If it's dressed to look the part


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