III

You bought your cousin’s
Chevrolet Belair ‘56
next you had a Pontiac Chief Star ‘55
two doors
you sold it to your brother
in law because he had just started working
in the public works department
then it was a Pontiac Bonneville ‘57
green
six cylinders
two tones
a bunch of cars came in two tones back then
grandma learned to drive in that car
you could fit yourself inside the trunk
it was one of the prettiest Pontiacs they put out
—you said
now, you take us
as you did then
by the sheep’s ankles
to the neighborhood’s clear water
in two tones
to see if we can signal the song
that chafes the air of the flamboyán trees
like the noise a puddle makes dying on the road
or the families that no longer have to rely on one another
to have a car to park out on the grass.

*

Gone are the things I always wanted
a picture of a fountain
the happy consent of the brief
the question we pose to the birds

*

it’s not like it’s stopped being a well
coins fall in it
I don’t hear them against the clay
and the rain has taken so long

Translated by Guillermo Rebollo Gil