Jack Daniels (From the unpublished book Séptimo poema)
What surprises me the most are not suicidal fanatics blowing up in a thousand pieces
in the streets of Baghdad or that we are losing a war that we are
winning,
it doesn’t surprise me either that Bill from Kansas, 22 years-old, my buddy in many drunken nights, games of pool and poker, with whom I laughed and cried remembering
our families, is now coming back home,
frozen in a bag as black as the stone adored by those fanatics in the southern country,
it’s not surprising that a few weeks ago we had to riddle the minivan with
a whole family inside, just because we got scared
when they got too close to our patrol,
it’s less surprising that I had to travel this far to realize I don’t
love you or that the modern science of our doctors could save my life but
couldn’t save good old Bill’s nor my legs or my arms,
no wonder either that everybody speaks a perfect English around the hospital
in the base in Germany and even children drink more beer than
Bill and I together,
what surprises me the most is that one time your face and smile would paint me like
a Polaroid torch in the living room of our rented little house in Albany, Jack and Lucy forever,]
the perfect boyfriend, the ingenious, the comedian, the patriot who instantly became
the charlatan, the stupid, the alcoholic,
the end of love is a bag as black as the stone adored by those fanatics in the southern country,]
when we rebuild our lives with other Jacks, other Lucys.
that’s what really surprises me the most…
(Translation by Dr. Vicent Moreno, Arkansas State University)
