From poemario inédito

 



The Human in the Cart


“I entered through such a strange labyrinth

ending the fragile thread of life

the late-discovered disillusionment”


I saw him asleep,

with his Corsican nose raised to the air

face of papier-maché and flesh

poetically raw

eyes closed like someone remembering

the drums of Loíza

in the Libre Soberao

from the frozen foods aisle.


He had horns bent by time

a real nose

a mother’s nose

that sniffs out history without reading it

the nose of an old communist who knew

how chains can shine

like Sunday specials.


Through books, I sell books.


The cart contained him,

cold metal grid,

supermarket wheels that squeak

like a detuned cuatro.


A human on pause,

a silence between carnivals,

escorted by empty shelves

and cameras that don’t understand masks.


Labyrinth

well

deep

But I saw him…


And I swear his mask was crying,

that his eyes dreamed of foam,

that his nose still smelled

the sweat of the ancestors

dancing freedom, freeing in the classroom

on every corner

of the captive Caribbean.





*******

-Elvis Rafael 
©


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