The Names of the Earth
Alberto Quero
I speak of distant places so that they continue to exist:
I fear they will disappear
if my memory does not contain them
and stops naming them.
That’s why I try to make my voice elastic,
may it not break,
may it not sink,
I want to describe,
with exact crudeness,
what is exile
so that those who have never knew it can imagine it
and so that it weighs on those who caused it.
My voice will reach someplace that I still don’t know,
it will be an avalanche,
slow music,
prayer
or furrow that persists.
However, there is no way to call
what the escape leaves,
nor what happens afterwards
because the word transit
doesn’t seem enough.
I content myself by continuously believing that,
maybe,
one can put the hand on the earth
and call it as one wills,
not necessarily with the name that others gave it
but any name,
perhaps some secret word:
after all, names and words
are usually arbitrary forms
of the same rushes
I fear they will disappear
if my memory does not contain them
and stops naming them.
That’s why I try to make my voice elastic,
may it not break,
may it not sink,
I want to describe,
with exact crudeness,
what is exile
so that those who have never knew it can imagine it
and so that it weighs on those who caused it.
My voice will reach someplace that I still don’t know,
it will be an avalanche,
slow music,
prayer
or furrow that persists.
However, there is no way to call
what the escape leaves,
nor what happens afterwards
because the word transit
doesn’t seem enough.
I content myself by continuously believing that,
maybe,
one can put the hand on the earth
and call it as one wills,
not necessarily with the name that others gave it
but any name,
perhaps some secret word:
after all, names and words
are usually arbitrary forms
of the same rushes
Alberto Quero was born in Venezuela and holds a BA in Literature and Linguistics, an MA in Literature, and a Doctorate in Humanities. He is a teacher of English, French and Spanish and the correspondent for Latin America at CKCU FM 93.1 in Ottawa. He has published six books of short stories, two books of poetry, numerous academic papers, and is winner of several literary awards. Alberto’s texts have been compiled in multiple anthologies.
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