Hombre Preso Que Mira a Su Hijo

When I was like you, the old folks taught me
and also the kind and shortsighted teachers
that freedom or death was a redundancy
who would think in a country
where presidents walked without bodyguards
that the homeland or the grave was another pleonasm
since the homeland worked well
in the fields and in the herding

really kid, they didn't know a damn thing
poor things believed that freedom
was just an acute word
that death was just grave or flat
and luckily, prisons were a proparoxytone word

they forgot to emphasize the man
the fault was not exactly theirs
but of others tougher and more sinister
and these yes
how they strung us along
in the clean verbal republic
how they idealized
the boredom of cows and landowners

and how they sold us an army
that drank mate in the barracks

one doesn't always do what they want
one doesn't always can
that's why I'm here
watching you and missing you

that's why I can't mess up your hair
or help you with the nine times table
or shoot you with pellets

you already know that I had to choose other games
and I played them seriously

and I played for example with thieves
and the thieves were policemen
and I played for example hide and seek
and if they found you, they killed you
and I played tag
and it was with blood

kid, even though you're young
I think I have to tell you the truth
so you don't forget it
that's why I don't hide from you that they shocked me
that they almost burst my kidneys

all these sores, swellings, and wounds
that your round eyes
hypnotically watch
are very hard blows
are boots in the face
too much pain for me to hide from you
too much torment for me to forget

but it's also good that you know
that your old man stayed silent
or cursed like a madman
which is a nice way to stay silent
that your old man forgot all the numbers
(that's why I couldn't help you with the tables)
and therefore all the phone numbers

and the streets and the eye color
and the hair and the scars
in which bar
which bus stop
which house

and remembering you
your little face
helped me stay silent

that's why now
you can ask me
and above all
I can answer

one doesn't always do what they want
but has the right not to do
what they don't want

just cry kid
it's nonsense that men don't cry
here we all cry

we shout we bawl we snivel we scream we curse
because it's better to cry than to betray
because it's better to cry than to betray oneself

cry
but don't forget