julio am I that woman?
hair long and loose, fallen back
onto the bed? my garden is in full bloom
and I'm right in the middle of it

waiting until I get to put that hat on my
head julio the way you smoke cigars
as thoughtfully as the monkey in the painting
I hereby present to you

I grow more tender each day it's the wind
gliding through the leaves and making
them rustle usually I only have one headlight on
and most of the time I freeze in the glare

but I'm still more than the words
I struggle to voice
do you remember I said
and now it's too late for good

all the men and women that lived
in me like in a cheap hotel
were in agreement
I liked to dream of you

like the museum visit we never
got round to and then I'd wake up
to the smell of roses
and I played the mandolin

to defy time as though this
really was a new century
and - thanks to the internet maybe - we
could turn ourselves into bundles of light

julio I honestly believed that
my late afternoon light was yellow
and greyish like after a volcanic eruption
more than once I've laid it

between our sheets
I let my blood bounce I was
a circus artiste tied to a trapeze
by a single slippery rope

I spun you in circles
hanging lonely on a bicycle
I kept thinking it's my body all the same

one day I'll be old enough
to make you
lose your mind

Translation: Michele Hutchinson