The Paddock Review

SPOTTED 

 

You know that life is eternal

because you have seen it

in slow motion

in the eyes of your dog,

that asks you with howls,

that you save him from the poison,

that your neighbor hid in his meat.

 

The image you’ve seen

is that of a child at 10 years old

who turns around himself

with the front legs

of your pet in your hands.

You don’t know how, but you try

to keep your dog breathing.

 

First, soapy water

enters between his locked fangs

from a crisp plastic bottle

about to break

from the pressure of your fingers.

 

The dust in the yard

surrounds you.

You are a top

that spins desperate.

 

While your neighbor

who threw the poison at your dog, asks you

Do you think you can save him?

 

Your father from another corner

of your patio watches you.

He walks to the neighbor:

It looks like a storm is coming.

The neighbor answers:

Step in, Don Luis, lest we don’t

get torn apart by lightning.

 

Your pet starts

to foam from his mouth

and his body, rigid before

softens like a rag

in the water of a meditative stream.

 

You turn and turn

while the first drops of rain

whip up the dust where your marbles

rest pensive.

 

You do not know how,

but you keep trying

to make life and not death eternal.

……

This poem is from the bilingual book With All His Wounds the Sun Rises / Se levanta el sol con todas sus heridas by Moises Villavicencio Barras (Finishing Line Press), and can be found at https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/with-all-his-wounds-the-sun-rises-se-levanta-el-sol-con-todas-sus-heridas-by-moises-villavicencio-barras/