CORNERS
It might have been the cold or the urge to be alone.
I couldn’t take it any longer.
I hunkered down in the corner of the living room.
No, not that one with the window …
Yes.
That one.
He crouched down, your father said.
He shrank little by little, your sister said.
Please do not feed the little animal.
And then I started scratching the walls at night
softly, so as to not wake up the neighbors.
Soon the corners of the living room, the dining room, the bathroom, the kitchen …
each had a small hole I could poke my head through.
And the things we had long given up for lost began to reappear:
your wedding ring, the silver teaspoon, that photo of us at …, the earrings, and souvenirs from the wedding of …
you picked them all, you filled your pockets with us.
It was in those days that you called the newspaper to publish a picture —
MISSING!
He went out on such-and-such a day, wearing such-and-such a jacket, such-and-such pants.
But I was right there, in the corner. Too low, too crouched,
a piece of lint that would soon need to be swept away.
Fredrik Öhlander via Unsplash
Dead Bird, Jamesy Turner
ESQUINAS
A lo mejor fue el frío o ganas de estar solo.
No pude aguantarlo.
Me agaché en la esquina de la sala.
No, la de la ventana no …
Sí.
Esa.
Se agazapó, dijo tu padre.
Se encogió poco a poco, dijo tu hermana.
Favor no alimentar al animalito.
Y entonces me dediqué a arañar las paredes en las noches
suavemente, no fuera a despertarse el vecino.
Pronto las esquinas de la sala, el comedor, la cocina, el baño …
todas tuvieron un pequeño hueco por donde asomar la cabeza.
Y empezaron a aparecer cosas que habíamos dado por perdidas:
tu argolla, la cucharita de plata, la foto de nosotros en …, los aretes y el recordatorio de la boda de …
las recogiste, te llenaste los bolsillos de nosotros.
Fue en esos días que llamaste al periódico y publicaste una fotografía
SE BUSCA
Salió el día tal, vestía chaqueta tal, pantalón tal.
Pero yo estaba ahí, en la esquina. Demasiado abajo, demasiado acurrucado
una pelusa en la esquina que pronto habría que barrer.
Leonardo Gil Gómez
Leonardo Gil Gómez is interested in creative writing, academia, and publishing. He is a PhD candidate in Northwestern University’s Department of Spanish and Portuguese and holds an MFA in creative writing from Universidad Nacional de Colombia. He is a co-founding member and editor at the Colombian independent press Himpar Editores. Celebraciones (2018), his first book of fiction, was awarded a national award by the Colombian Ministry of Culture.
For more of Jamesy Turner’s visual art, visit this portfolio.