Ha muerto Elba Susana
Rolando Alárcon
Elba Susana Has Died
In Tafí Viejo, Elba Susana has died,
The newspaper says on this 2nd of July 1969.
She died during the clashes between striking workers and railway police. Yesterday, when news of her injury,
She was three years old. Her father said the police shot at a group of workers. Yesterday's news said Elba Susana was playing in her backyard when a bullet pierced her belly and exited through her back. And the wound, according to the news, was four centimeters in diameter; a rose that I would have wanted to kiss. And now they tell me, and... they tell me: 'I invite you to talk, gentlemen.' I want to hear them say it was a tragedy, it was a regrettable accident, life goes on. Private property remains sheltered, protected, full of snakes and poison. Who will give me a jasmine for Elba Susana del Valle? I'll trade a carousel of candies and... all my verses for Elba... that don't... that don't serve this carousel and all my poems to pay the ransom? What should I do for Elba to come back to life and teach me to count to ten? What do I do with my poems then? Do I eat them and fly? Fly to where Elba Susana left her field of blood? Yes, I fly!
