Cesar Vallejo’s Night, 1892 – 1938

by B.Z. Niditch

Night travels the field
among a hundred days,
your bed enters darkness
on a bridge of departure
from a poor man
working dreams
against tomorrow,
the heated sky opens
beneath an indifferent sun,
unlocking a map of clouds
from a Peruvian cosmogony.

Your nightmares enlighten
the shadows of corpses
along vast mountainsides
no doubt, the earth
photographs your long face
among the pine leaves
trampling over your grave,
petals fall on meadows
pressed by your doorway
granting hours of eternity
from those who wont forget.