Mi Niñez

I was ten years old and had a cat
Hairy, tightrope walker and stubborn
That was waiting for me on the patio wires
Back from school
I had a balcony with basil
And an army of buttons
And a train with tin cars
Broken between two stations

I had a blue sky
And a cobblestone garden
And a story to burn
Shivering in my skin
I was a beautiful rider
On my scooter
Making fun of every corner
Like a swallow
With nothing to forget
Because yesterday I learned to fly

Wasting time
Facing the sea

I had a gloomy house
That mother dressed in tenderness
And a pillow that spoke and knew
Of my ambition to be a priest

I had a yellow canary
That only trilled his sorrow
Listening to some old organ
Or my soft (like a breeze) radio

And in July, in Aragon
A little town had
A ditch, a stable
And some ruins in the Sun

To the wind the navels
Four friends were flying
Pockmarked from smallpox
And school orphans
Stealing grapes and corn
Sucking sugar cane and licorice
I think I was happy then

It had four sacraments
And a guardian angel friend
And a borrowed and grimy Paris Hollywood
Hidden among my books

I had a brunette girlfriend
That opened my senses to the Moon
Playing the forbidden games
In the shade of a fig tree

I went through childhood imitating my brother
Breaking the wind and stoning the Sun
My mother grew gray hair
Stitching pajamas
My father became old
Without looking in the mirror
And my brother left
Home for the first time
And where, where was my childhood?