CarrollBlog 11.9

In Order to Talk with the Dead

By Jorge Teiller

In order to talk to the dead

you have to choose words

that they recognize as easily

as their hands

recognized the fur of their dogs in the dark.

Words clear and calm

as water of the torrent tamed in the wineglass

or chairs the mother puts in order

after the guests have left.

Words that night shelters

as marshes do their ghostly fires

In order to talk to the dead

you have to know how to wait:

they are fearful

like the first steps of a child.

But if we are patient

one day they will answer us

with a poplar leaf trapped in a broken mirror,

with a flame that suddenly revives in the fireplace,

with a dark return of birds

before the glance of a girl

who waits motionless on the threshold.