When Lisa told me she'd made love
to someone else, in that old Tepeyac warehouse
phone booth, I thought my world
was over. A tall, skinny guy with
long hair and a long cock who didn't wait
more than one date to penetrate her deep.
It's nothing serious, she said, but it's
the best way to get you out of my life.
Parménides García Saldaña had long hair and
could have been Lisa's lover, but some
years later I found out he'd died in a psych ward
or killed himself. Lisa didn't want to
sleep with losers anymore. Sometimes I dream
of her and see her happy and cold in a Mexico
drawn by Lovecraft. We listened to music
(Canned Heat, one of Parménides García Saldaña's
favorite bands) and then we made
love three times. First, he came inside me,
then he came in my mouth, and the third time, barely
a thread of water, a short fishing line, between my breasts. And all
in two hours, said Lisa. The worst two hours of my life,
I said from the other end of the phone.

Translated from the Spanish by Laura Healy