By Romeo
Date: 21 October 1998

Confession

... As I have no other belongings,

I carry my oldest poems on my back.

They make up for the things and the people

who were taken from me unjustly.



Torn and wrinkled,

I smooth them out onto new sheets of paper...

and they come to tell me stories

that don't even contain a moral.



Today I want to confess to you, my friend,

I am no longer a poet:

I'm simply an embalmer of poetry.



Since I have no other belongings,

I'm just walking with my corpses over my back.



--Alicia Partnoy