ASTRANGESTORY
by Guillermo Chacín
Silence – went on the old goose – is the absolute melody; the absolute director.
It is the spinal cord of the universe, destroy it and everything else will collapse. Let the time of silence be your time also and see how its deft vibrations, underlining our steps, sets things together.
And he went on; music - if any - should flow from it in a most natural manner. Moreover don’t forget the countdown is on me, therefore get under the table and sing!
We all did and sang:
Oh! The times, getting harder and harder for poets… but it is not for them that they should despair. Poetry will let its enemy defeat itself, poets are to be like mirrors that reflect the image of fire without burning!
And it followed that the little girl–princess like came along to feed the geese and, at her sight, I could do no less than run and throw myself down at her feet, holding her tight and clinging to her knees, I cried: – give me no food but your love!
– I knew it! I knew it! – the old goose shouted – he’s not one of ours, he’s a man!
And I cried out: Since the times are difficult for poets, let me at once be one of you… for in you I have found my exile and I’d rather be a Christmas dinner than a poet in grief – Done! – the old goose said.
And it followed that the day came, in which big man-boss-father like, axe in hand searched among the geese for his best meal. By then I had learned to walk like a goose so well that he took me for one.
He killed me, filled me with spices and roasted me well; and then there I was, at the very centre of their table! They all talked, laughed and ate.
The little girl–princess–me came one morning with grain for the geese and at her sight the old goose cried:
Alas! Here he comes in a new and most adorable shape; the man who mastered silence!
A short story by a Venezuelan who lives in Caracas His name is Guillermo Chacín.
He is also a poet and a surrealistic painter and his short story "AVERYSTRANGESTORY" is also surrealistic, hence the strange English sometimes.
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