Song

In the night
a gunshot
is in the night.
The bullet ricochets
off the Andes
and enters the brain
of a brown rabbit.

The dogs, which had been barking all night, go silent.

Then they go crazy.
The dogs go crazy
under the dark sky
that fills up the space
above my roof.
In the vineyard,
a man holds a pistol.
He spreads out his arms
and a song rises from his chest.


(El Noviciado, Chile, January 2006)