“I shall look at you out of the corner of my eye, and you will say nothing.
Words are the source of misunderstandings.”
– the Fox, in Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s “The Little Prince”
And now that the stone
has been rolled away
from the mouth of the cave,
and the women with their oils
and unguents have come and gone?
There is no longer a body
suspended in the cleft of rock.
It’s quiet, but not melancholy.
The sea is far away. I am not sure
what day of the week it is,
but in every backyard, laundry
drips on the line: rags, pantaloons,
blouses, sheets. Muslin cases
for pillows called abrazador—
the length of a man, the width
of a pair of circling arms.
In response to Via Negativa: Household.