This spring
Luci Afonso This spring I'll stay home. Lying on the couch, I hear the suicidal scream of cicadas. Leaning over the balcony, I gather fresh drops of rain, the first and the last. At night, the moon crosses the blinds of the bedroom and lights up my body, curled on the Egyptian 500-thread sheets. As for company, I only want my son's, my mother's and my cat's, spontaneous extensions of myself. Voices, only those of dear spirits, of small children, or the lonely elderly. Caresses, only those of the wind, which kindly refreshes my face. Men, don't look at me: I'm ugly. Friends, don't look for me: I'm absent. Why meet people? I've met all I can stand. I don't need facts – the world spins without me. I'm only interested in the leaf fallen on the grass and in the poem whispered by the ancient tree. I fade away in this inverted spring. I penetrate the dark depths of the earth to implode my singing, until the white death of the