Every City: a poem by José Fernández de la Sota

Every city's a remembrance
Somebody leaves in some taxi.
Every portrait, a reflection
Of a dissapearing one passing.

For many years I've been living
–Too many years– on this stage.
Every stage is like a mirror
Where life is struggling to stay.

All my life I have been walking
Through a reduced city expansion.
There's a maze with no way out
Behind every horizon.

I play the game without caring
For the outcome. I've been playing
For a long time. Every city
Is a game board warped in pity

Every country is a lying
Past that we cannot predict.
Every city is a wound
And a hospital –derelict–.

Translated by: me

José Fernández de la Sota was born in Bilbao in 1960.
He is at present the most important poet in the city.