Pares cum Paribus Nº 4: Índice - Facultad de Ciencias Sociales ...

UNIVERSITY OF CHILE
FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
Robert Hill Long
Fin de Siècle
Where will you be at the end of the 90's?
the mirror asks. Why not Juarez?
I lay my razor aside.... The visionaries
are far too young and poorer than ever
but they line up to buy me mezcal:
infamous poet, fat and bald
as a monk tailing the conquistadors.
Knocking shots back, I swallow the worm
of the latest bad year and shakily recite
Verlaine: Ecoutez la chanson gris--
words plink in my glass like penny wishes
punctuated by the clatter of sniper fire
in the streets of El Paso. Or, having
repudiated all that seemed great,
necessary and serious, I shrug on
the pastel uniform of a twilight golfer,
bruising the small white ball of memory
while quail cry in the pines, content--
despite the tiny crocodile who gnaws
my heart --with a low handicap
and minor poolside lecheries. Hong Kong
is not out of the question, smuggling
black market comics to the queen of Asia,
a Radcliffe dropout desperately fond
of Wonder Woman and Richie Rich.
Possibly I will be mislaid in a mass
grave, all my gold teeth jerked out.
PARES CUM PARIBUS No. 4
FALL-WINTER 1997