Prompt: Celebrate Earth Day by writing something on that theme.
I took a line from Mario Benedetti’s poem Todavía. He is a poet from Uruguay and I had never heard of him til this weekend but in the Spanish-speaking world he was considered one of Latin America’s most important 20th-century writers.
The line is “la noche es un puñado
de estrellas y de alegría” which roughly translates as “Night is a handful of stars and joy” which I think is beautiful.
I content myself with a smile so wide
I scare the magpies
They scatter from the fence
And all day stay above
Circling
Two for joy, two for joy
Don’t tell me I can’t wait
That I can’t throw my desire to the four winds
Watch it scatter,
One for sorrow, two for joy
Don’t tell me I can’t wait for the clean linen
My own is drying on the line
Not yet ready to be done with the playful sun
Don’t tell me I shouldn’t wait
While you drag the corpse of a once mediocre passion
Round your hips in the whiskied hours of the morning.
But I
I will wait,
Planted firm in the soil,
I will wait until all breaks and
Night is a handful of stars and joy