La Huida

She's fifteen springs old, few lies to tell,
two first earrings and she hasn't seen the sea yet.
While she waits for it on the sidewalk, the world crumbles.

He's sixteen Augusts old and a stolen cloud,
and Extremoduro verses flying in the room.
While he dreams of her, he copies a poem that he will later make his own.

And like every afternoon, the city stops at the moment
he picks her up.
'How was class?' 'You're late.' 'Don't scold me, come.'

And she holds the folder close to her chest, and in the sky
smoke anemones, coral antennas.
'If you want, my love, I'll kidnap you one day and take you to see the sea.'

One afternoon like any other he will pick her up
with his soul in a handkerchief, with dad's car.
'Get on the boat, girl. This is the escape I promised you.'

Hopefully they'll be lucky, just as we dreamed,
and paradise takes them to National 4.
'Love, why are you crying?' 'Maybe I'm happy.'

And just after Despeñaperros, sleep overwhelms them
and the desire to share sweats.
'Stop and let's sleep.' The cold stays outside with the dark night.

After a while, the car is filled with steam and flights,
in endless beaches, endless road.
Deserted sands, a thousand sunsets that end in you.

It won't be the dawn light that wakes them up,
nor a roaring wave, nor the smell of salt:
a couple of cops shouting at them.

Like the glass of dreams, on the way to the station.
A couple of lives shattered between arguments and screams.
Whose idea was it? A cloud dissolves and a wave breaks.

And back to the city, where it never tastes like salt,
the skin and the rain, that sometimes kisses you,
go home, listen to howls, never-ending blows.

The elders forbade them from going out, time plowed through their lives,
burning poems, endless road.
Back home, a thousand sunsets that end without you.

The city kept crumbling, on the sidewalk meanwhile
smoke anemones, coral antennas.
He gets lost in the mist, she only remembers when she looks at the sea.

Doubt assails her about being alive and she remembers some escape
when she still didn't know how to lie.
'Love, why are you crying?' 'Maybe I'm happy.'