Elegy 1: First of October 1995 (Elegía 1: Primero de Octubre de 1995)

Juan Manuel diffused in the light

This weekend, sixteen years ago, my four year old nephew Juan Manuel left our world to become a little angel. He was under the care of a family friend that fateful afternoon, playing with other kids in the pool. Only God knows exactly what happened, but it only took a few minutes for him to drown. He was rushed to hospital and immediately put in intensive care, but unfortunately there was nothing they could do. They informed my father straight away and he had to give the horrible news to my sister and her husband. The doctors were trying to revive him one last time as my sister got to the hospital.

Juan Manuel was a cheeky little boy with blondish hair and big brown eyes. Unlike his older brother, he loved soccer and playing rough with his father. He was the youngest member of my family, and the first one to leave us.

The events that followed this tragedy were almost as awful as Juan Manuel’s passing. My poor sister had a terrible few years after, but I will share these details tomorrow and the day after, with parts two and three of this poem from my Dad’s book The celebrated afternoon (La tarde festejada).

Elegy 1: First of October 1995 (Elegía 1: Primero de Octubre de 1995)

A few hours ago

we put the little lifeless body

of the boy in a white wooden sarcophagus

three metres deep

in a garden in the outskirts of the city;

we covered the excavation of black soil

with a layer of green grass

and we begged the birds

inhabitants of the old guardian tree

that they make him company

and caress him

when they feel that he is scared

of the shadows and the loneliness.