Istanbul Literary Review - September 2011 Edition (#21)
Istanbul Literary Review - September 2011 Edition (#21)
Caricatures
by
Luis Benitez
They are found wherever there is
an emptiness.
The solitary seats do not
dispirit them.
They lie in wait for each century.
They are, in fact, the ones
who push time towards us
now and then in the stillness of
a photograph
where four or five men talk about
butterflies
one or two of them visibly
concealed
in the eternal eventide of all
Sun-days.
But how persuaded they feel of
being
what other creatures are.
“Like the dead when they feign to
be asleep.”
Something whispers to them from
the dust
inaudible, intangible. They play
a role
these creatures who have become
caricatures
of themselves like the small twig
ignorant
of its being a tree. Bound to
perpetuate such
an arbitrary trend of events it
is perhaps
to them and only them to whom
we owe the placid rotation of the
world.
Istanbul Literary Review - September 2011 Edition (#21)