Chair

He bought it
to look at his world: letters,
plants, lamps, carpets,
dinner services, spyglasses, lampshades, cloths,
typewriters, light bulbs, mirrors,
gramophones, envelopes,
books, colored ribbons,
liveries, voices, tables,
determinations, leaves,
second, third, even fourth hand
mounds.

Objects which survive those who lease them
and will survive us.

Mahogany is more durable than flesh
cypress more alive than eyes
cedar blacker than skin
and metals too.

This rubbish
changes its old man every week.

Traslated from Spanish by Rowena Hill