The abolished days (Los días abolidos)

This is the predecessor poem to last Friday’s ‘The house belonged to my father’. I hope my friends with children out there had a lovely Father’s Day!

From my Dad’s book Twilight theory (Teoría del crepúsculo).

The abolished days (Los días abolidos)

The old man built the house with his own hands.

He put one on top of the other the blocks of clay

following an imaginary design that only he knew.

When he finished his craftsmanship an oblique sun decorated

the large terrace where the birds used to see the dusk.

Then he started living each corner and

he used to say that it was his shadow

for his children and his wife.

Hurricane winds destroyed the house

with the gardens and the fountains and the vespertine shelter

for the passerby birds.

The old man forgot the art of placing

the blocks of clay and now he says that the shadow

of his shadow is the only thing he has left in this world.