I cant help but ask Do you know where you areShe turns to me with a foreboding glare. Do you

There is a stillness between us a period of restlessness that ties my stomachin a hangmans noose. It is this same lack in noise that lives there in thedarkness of the grave how it frightens me beyond all things.

Call me crazy but there is something terribly wrong with this city.

Do we not each dream of dreams Do we not dance on the notes of lostmemories Then are we not each dreamers of tomorrow and yesterday since dreamsplay when time is askew Are we not all adrift in the constant sea of trial and when all is done do we not all yearn for ships to carry us home

You haunt my days and dreams.

You haunt my days and dreams.

I paid the taxi driver got out with my suitcase surveyed my surroundings and just as I was turning to ask the driver something or get back into the taxi and return forthwith to Chilln and then to Santiago it sped off without warning as if the somewhat ominous solitude of the place had unleashed atavistic fears in the drivers mind. For a moment I too was afraid. I must have been a sorry sight standing there helplessly with my suitcase from the seminary holding a copy of Farewells Anthology in one hand. Some birds flew out from behind a clump of trees. They seemed to be screaming the name of that forsaken village Querqun but they also seemed to be enquiring who quin quin quin. I said a hasty prayer and headed for a wooden bench there to recover a composure more in keeping with what I was or what at the time I considered myself to be. Our Lady do not abandon your servant I murmured while the black birds about twenty-five centimetres in length cried quin quin quin. Our Lady of Lourdes do not abandon your poor priest I murmured while other birds about ten centimetres long brown in colour or brownish rather with white breasts called out but not as loudly quin quin quin Our Lady of Suffering Our Lady of Insight Our Lady of Poetry do not leave your devoted subject at the mercy of the elements I murmured while several tiny birds magenta black fuchsia yellow and blue in colour wailed quin quin quin at which point a cold wind sprang up suddenly chilling me to the bone.

The splendor of that moment its transcendent glory and aliveness haunted him. He could thrust it aside by day but it poisoned his dreams by night calling to him and pleading with him to unlock the chains hed bound about it.

All is as if the world did cease to exist. The citys monuments go unseen its past unheard and its culture slowly fading in the dismal sea.