The child who knelt before the wooden
altar painted without passion
finishes his prayers
_______________ and gets up cramped
what shakes the skies?
Miserable skies that
_______________ spill their dregs
while I take refuge under the eaves
of God’s house
____________ and that don’t clear up
I don’t drink you from the chalice
that the drunken priest
__________________ _feverishly
holds out to me
I drink you in the goblet of the trees
And what is this prayer for?
Salvation of the man
________________ _now forever sober
who yesterday offered us a beer?
No one prays for you
From one kneeling to another who stands
from the monks who loudly sing
to one who doesn’t know how to cross himself
trapped between two suns
___________________ _Devotion and fear
Lying in state
____________I attend Mass
Afternoon of three graves
—congestion in the traffic of souls
This rhythm is the mask of pain
Translated from the Spanish by Jerry Harp