Closer (Mas serka)

Before you lay two coins on my eyes
and wash and embalm my body
I sing a song of life.
I sing a song of having lived.
I sing a song of being lived.
I sing a song about you. 

My lips do not speak of
where the heart has not been,
moistened with saliva and full of passion.
Grinning from ear to ear at the tones your name makes,
at the sound of your voice
because I’m here for the symphony.

The thought I will never find someone
who will receive me in my incomplete completeness
fades into the background.
Just like a confrontation you come pretty close.
Even a guitarist will caress his string for the last time
and the breath of a horn player, too, will one day run out.
Nearness is the closest you will ever come,

for disappointment always arrives hand in hand with pain.

Ray Fuego
(Translated by Scott Rollins)