.
IMG_0190 (Julian, azotea, laundry): photo by locaburg, 6 May 2006
Listen carefully, my son: bombs were falling
over Mexico City
but no one even noticed.
The air carried poison through
the streets and open windows.
You'd just finished eating and were watching
cartoons on TV.
I was reading in the bedroom next door
when I realized we were going to die.
Despite the dizziness and nausea I dragged myself
to the kitchen and found you on the floor.
We hugged. You asked what was happening
and I didn't tell you we were on death's program
but instead that we were going on a journey,
one more, together, and that you shouldn't be afraid.
When it left, death didn't even
close our eyes.
What are we? you asked a week or year later,
ants, bees, wrong numbers
in the big rotten soup of chance?
We're human beings, my son, almost birds,
public heroes and secrets.
Roberto Bolaño (1953-2002): Godzilla in Mexico, from The Romantic Dogs (Los perros románticos), poems 1980-1988, published posthumously, 2006, English translation by Laura Healy, 2008
over Mexico City
but no one even noticed.
The air carried poison through
the streets and open windows.
You'd just finished eating and were watching
cartoons on TV.
I was reading in the bedroom next door
when I realized we were going to die.
Despite the dizziness and nausea I dragged myself
to the kitchen and found you on the floor.
We hugged. You asked what was happening
and I didn't tell you we were on death's program
but instead that we were going on a journey,
one more, together, and that you shouldn't be afraid.
When it left, death didn't even
close our eyes.
What are we? you asked a week or year later,
ants, bees, wrong numbers
in the big rotten soup of chance?
We're human beings, my son, almost birds,
public heroes and secrets.
Roberto Bolaño (1953-2002): Godzilla in Mexico, from The Romantic Dogs (Los perros románticos), poems 1980-1988, published posthumously, 2006, English translation by Laura Healy, 2008
IMG_9690 (Sunday afternoon, Mexico City): photo by locaburg, 21 December 2005
IMG_4150 (Julian, iron man): photo by locaburg, 11 October 2008
IMG_1592 (white robe, Godzilla): photo by locaburg, 6 October 2010
IMG_0848 (dog, ice cream): photo by locaburg, 16 October 2013
IMG_8746: photo by locaburg, 16 October 2013
DSCF8730 (Great Dane, Mexico City): photo by locaburg, 25 September 2012
IMG_2002 (dog, Monte Escobedo, Zacatecas): photo by locaburg, 10 January 2008
IMG_9782 (three white dogs): photo by locaburg, 8 June 2010
IMG_8807 (dogs, Xoloscuintle): photo by locaburg, 7 December 2005
IMG_0845 (muzzled dog): photo by locaburg, 11 September 2009
IMG_1482 (dog, skull, Xoloscuintle, iztapalapa): photo by locaburg, 16 February 2011
IMG_7684 (dog, car, brick): photo by locaburg, 22 December 2009