Elegy 1: First of October 1996 (Elegía 1: Primero de Octubre de 1997)

Juan Manuel diffused in the light (final)

About a year passed since the death of Santiago. Nevertheless, after losing her third son, my sister still had the hope of new life. In order to make sure she could complete her family again she went as far as searching for the best obstetrician and gynaecologist in town, in addition to her continuous effort to get her inner strength back. When she told us she was pregnant again we were very happy for her, but this time a little cautious not to let our hopes get too high.

My niece María Juliana was born on the 10^th of November 1997, a beautiful and healthy girl, who brought joy back to my sister’s life.

Two years later, from my Dad’s book The celebrated afternoon (La tarde festejada). To my beloved sister Nana and my gorgeous niece Juli.

Elegy 1: First of October 1996 (Elegía 1: Primero de Octubre de 1997)

Like if the bones that we buried

had sprouted

and the stems grew inside each of us,

we felt him like a leafy bonsai,

rich, full of shade

and fruit and chirps at the edge of the afternoon

and in the first light of dawn.

Now he is above the eventualities of our world.

Neither time, nor rain or sun

can touch his identity.

Now there are no tears

to cry him, only space

and time to remember him.

He will always be the way he was,

our little loving boy,

pure and luminous and abstract,

perpetual in the immaterial shape

that he took

when he entered eternity.

To Sergio Alberto

Yáñez Ramírez.