"Reality and Desire" by Olga Orozco

-To Luis Cernuda-

Reality, yes, reality,
that lightning of the invisible
revealing in us the loneliness of God.

It is this heaven, fleeing.
It is this territory adorned by bubbles of death.
It is this long table drifting away
where the diners persist, dressed by the prestige of not being present.

To each his cup
to measure the wine that ends when thirst begins.
To each his plate
to enclose the hunger, extinguished without being ever satiated.
And for every two, division of bread:
the miracle reversed, communion only in the impossible.
And in the middle of love,
between one body and the other, the fall,
something that resembles the grim beat of wings returning from
[eternity,
to the pulse of an underground goodbye..

Reality, yes, reality:
a closed seal on all doors of desire.