Sunday, March 21, 2010

marbles, fables, and other paths


He worked for years behind those walls. Silently, landed pins on shoe soles, tied leather knots, crunched peanuts during burning seasons. I had never walked by those factory walls before. All those water lilies impossibly blooming in august, under no sun to be seen. Silently.
Giaccomo had a wife and three daughters. Arrived there before the war, silently, weary, but holding some hope. Manzinni, se chiamava il padre suo. Era morto da anni. Had not ever dreamed he would meet Marta, and so soon, after all.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

four o'clock, before the rain

each day waitin' for the rain. The silence of lilies and daffodils entertaining insects. We were all at the tipping point of the cape: further west there was only water.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Il castello in viaggio

A tiny second before the explosion. I heard a fluff of air through the shoulders. I was humming a song. "Le cose belle," lei me aveva parlato una volta, "sono lente." Then it was really coming. Like a nineteen sixty two repeated in fast motion; the bulge of air distorted; the last sandhill crane. and I wondered if it would have felt like this when the dinossaurs said goodbye.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Rained in

Early March
[Eu me forçava a olhar aqueles rolos de feno molhados estragados depois de tanta chuva ressecando esquecidos sob um céu azul e calmo. O cheiro do capim se espalhando lento flutuando todo nevoeiro de abril sobre as coisas, sobre a cerca onde eu me apoiava agora, sobre o barro enlameado me cobrindo os sapatos, sobre a bicicleta cedendo lentamente ao abraço molhado do chão vermelho repicado de amarelo queimado em tanto capim.

Ele sentava do outro lado daqueles rolos, eu sabia, dia após dia, tardes inteiras contando nuvens e imaginando Iolanda ali no descampado. Imaginando outras notas que iria tocar e os dedos, os labios, os fios de Iolanda sem "y" despachada deitada dormindo leve naquele verão que perdeu de vista mas que insistia em trazer consigo, preso na argola de latao balançando na corrente que colheira insuspeito quando ainda eram jovens, Iolanda dormindo mas na verdade apenas fingindo não estar ali, ensaiando uma saida definitiva que enfim iria acontecer, deixando ele, o céu, o latão, aqueles rolos renovados a cada ano, a bicicleta enlameada, e meus sapatos. Olhando da cerca. Tanto céu. Azul.]

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Noise

leavin'

[guarda! guarda, Filipa!  Dietro quegli alberi rimangono i racconti della nonna.  Coperti di cenere, riposati su bracieri e coperti con quel sottile strato di zucchero che hai amato di trovare su le biscotti che lei facceva di solito.
riesci a vederli? li vedi?]

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Sirenia Claire

   
Sirenia Claire.
A music project.









"...unabashedly “pop” album that sounds like it was recorded halfway between outer space and the hip indie store downtown."   

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Depois de tanta solidão

não volte. (...)
[Kamil had this motorcycle he insisted in driving around with. Centuries old, it seemed sometimes.  Pilot cap on his head, he mostly rode on this impossibly running Sokol with a tripod and a camera on a saddlebag which seemed to be about to come apart. Long roads. Sunshine catcher, moon chaser, he used to say he was.
Before digital cameras and cellular telephones. I wondered how he managed to keep that bike running. But he did. ]

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Puerto Madero


"¿Y fue por este río de sueñera y de barro
que las proas vinieron a fundarme la patria?
Irían a los tumbos los barquitos pintados
entre los camalotes de la corriente zaina.

Pensando bien la cosa, supondremos que el río
era azulejo entonces como oriundo del cielo
con su estrellita roja para marcar el sitio
en que ayunó Juan Díaz y los indios comieron.

Lo cierto es que mil hombres y otros mil arribaron
por un mar que tenía cinco lunas de anchura
y aún estaba poblado de sirenas y endriagos
y de piedras imanes que enloquecen la brújula.

Prendieron unos ranchos trémulos en la costa,
durmieron extrañados. Dicen que en el Riachuelo,
pero son embelecos fraguados en la Boca.
Fue una manzana entera y en mi barrio: en Palermo.

Una manzana entera pero en mitá del campo
expuesta a las auroras y lluvias y suestadas.
La manzana pareja que persiste en mi barrio:
Guatemala, Serrano, Paraguay y Gurruchaga.

Un almacén rosado como revés de naipe
brilló y en la trastienda conversaron un truco;
el almacén rosado floreció en un compadre,
ya patrón de la esquina, ya resentido y duro.

El primer organito salvaba el horizonte
con su achacoso porte, su habanera y su gringo.
El corralón seguro ya opinaba YRIGOYEN,
algún piano mandaba tangos de Saborido.

Una cigarrería sahumó como una rosa
el desierto. La tarde se había ahondado en ayeres,
los hombres compartieron un pasado ilusorio.
Sólo faltó una cosa: la vereda de enfrente.

A mí se me hace cuento que empezó Buenos Aires:
La juzgo tan eterna como el agua y como el aire."

Monday, February 15, 2010

Lunch break


Peter used to look at the illuminated altar three times a week. Between one and two, on sunny afternoons, the light was best. Silently he thought about crocodiles, elephants, a backyard in Luanda he had not seen for ages, but which refused to leave, day or night.

Friday, February 12, 2010

Sin eso de muelles y aguas que no agotanse



jamás. y esos silencios sin nombre. If at least I knew what happened after they left. Twenty three years ago we still moved around the ship, the docks left unfinished, uncountable splattering of cold plateña water on the hull. Pero sin ganas, sin ningun sonido, waiting for something we knew had never been there.  A faded hope, tantos campeones, otros tangos, y aquellos años involucrandose en bruma.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Thursday, February 4, 2010

"Santiago," I called


But that was years ago.
Lo manejaba sin miedo, y adelante;
con tantas ganas, el me dice, con tantas ganas de volver...

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Que habían dejado el muelle hace años


They left the quay years ago.
Floating, tied to the dock, weathered and fragile, it stood still. 
Paint gone. the key lock still worked, alright

Friday, January 29, 2010