Silvina Ocampo

1903 –1993 / Buenos Aires, Argentina

Epitaph for a Tree

Like a drink of water I gave shade
in summer. My sap captured
the gold of evening and the pale
persistence of the river in the dove.
So inattentive were the glances,
that not one man in this world ever managed
to enumerate my leaves, my songs.
Now my absence occupies much space:
a flight of incessant birds marks
the place where I am missing, that grows larger.
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