Mannual Iris

Ars poetica

Stubborn, the yellow leaf does not let go of the branch. I watch her battle against wind and rain, against gravity. For days, I've been watching her quiet effort, her tiny tragedy. Her persistence does not deserve oblivion.

That is why I put her here, in this verse from which she will not fall.

I am from here

To Pat Brennan and his students

One is from the places that he has arrived, from the language in which he can’t dream and one day it happens and he wakes up wondering which one is now his house when there is always a heart elsewhere.

One comes from the streets that never are the same when he returns.

One comes from the moment in which he decided to leave and from that other one in which he realizes that everything departs. That it is impossible to stay, even if you stay. That it is impossible, even if you come back, to be back. I write a verse that is like a farewell and I point at it: I am from here.