Very Brief Love Letter-Song

If I had met you on some journey
where would we be now?
...
Would you have worn your silken robes
all made of royal blue?
Would I have dressed in smoke and fire
for you to see through?
...
Would you have taken me upstairs
and turned the lamplight low?
Would I have shown my secret self
and disappeared like the snow?

SUZANNE VEGA in 'Some Journey'


By Ester Astudillo

I pray you: never pay heed
to the vicious words that escape my mouth;
it's the sad bitter Goneril in me
who does the talking.

Picture me rather
as the laced ballerina
I never cared to play
not having met you,
a tame Cordelia.

Now your pink tatoo on my skin
makes an old seaman of me,
which I never planned to be,

who learned ancient tongues
wanting to reach some port.
But I guess I missed it.

Let it suffice then
that I can picture you
as a sweet blue thing
escaping me someplace
while you see in me
a white-clad figurine
who tends to you well.

Let's make of what might have been
some sort of consoling.
Let's wholeheartedly belive
in Shakespeare's All's Well.