Now
you already have my story.

Now
you already have night,
tied to your madness, tied to
the overflowing instinct
that sustains your anger
and your benevolent fasting.

Now
you already have children, materialized
out of nowhere
licking your hand
and searching in your breasts
for the milk of the past.

Now
you already live on memory,
the real thing for you,
is just a story.

Carlos Rivera Chacon (b 1942) studied biology and education in Turrialba and Cartago, Costa Rica, and was among the founders of the Circulo de Poetas Turrialbenos. His first collection of poems was published in 1963, under the title, Semilla de Camino.