We are going to make a sun

By María José Ferrada

Them, women and men, boys and girls wanted to make a sun that would shelter them that would shine that would smile from the sky.

They closed their eyes they dreamt about this sun and put their hands to work.

They knew this always: to make a sun you need drawings made with yellow pencils firefly light honey jars.

Each child, each person took charge of getting some of these and that something was the best that they could find in their homes, their gardens, their cupboards, because that sun, which had appeared in their dreams, did not shine for a few of them but for all the boys and girls in the city, the country, over all the earth.

It took them, women and men boys and girls a whole year to bring together the ingredients: (let me remind you: drawings made with yellow pencils firefly light honey jars).

And then they started to work.

They mixed, they kneaded, they gave it form until finally the sun was ready.

Then they searched for the tallest ladder they could find and they hung it from the sky

That sun was just as they had dreamt: it sheltered it shone it smiled from the sky (for everyone and everything in the city, the country, all over the earth which now appeared more full of colors).

Everything was going well, until some footsteps were heard off in the distance.

It was a shadow with a black cloak, A shadow that came and said: I will return tomorrow and I will take this sun with me.

But why?, someone asked.

But the shadow didn’t respond and it left, with unrelenting steps.

Them, women and men boys and girls lowered the sun down from the sky and took it apart carefully.

They hid its rays, they hid its warmth, in pockets and suitcases.

When it arrived, the darkness couldn’t find anything at all.

Because them, those women and men those boys and girls left and went walking far, far away and when they got there they began to make the sun again.

This is the sun that we dreamt about, they said.

This is the sun that we made with yellow pencils firefly light honey jars.

A sun that lights us up. that warms us, that smiles.

And that cannot be destroyed like everything that is made of good dreams, like hope, like the sky, like light.