I leafed through the paper
and found no news today at all.
The headlines should have read,
“Relax. Nothing Happened.”
I paced the floor thinking that
a new idea or an old memory
would rear its radiant head.
Nada. A complete blank.
Something is like nothing in disguise.
It’s nothing with clothes on.
It’s nothing until
it becomes something.
A pencil is something
that makes nothing something.
An eraser is something
that makes something nothing.
A pencil can make
you remember,
but an eraser
cannot make you forget.
—First published in Across My Silence (World Audience, Inc., 2007);
republished here by author’s permission
Una Mañana de Nada
Hojeaba entre el periódico
Sin encontrar noticias de hoy en absoluto.
El lead debió llamarse,
“Relájese. Nada ocurrió.”
Caminé en círculos pensando que
Una nueva idea o una vieja memoria
Podría despertar su radiante cabeza.
Nada. Un completo blanco.
Algo es como nada enmascarada.
Es nada vestida de ropas.
Es nada hasta que
Se vuelve algo.
Un lápiz es algo
Que hace a la nada algo.
Una goma de borrar es algo
Que hace a algo nada.
Un lápiz puede hacerte
recordar,
pero una goma de borrar
no puede hacerte olvidar.
first formal collection of poetry, Across My Silence, was published by World
Audience, Inc. (New York, NY, 2007). His work has been nominated three times for a
Pushcart Prize and chosen as a finalist in North American Review’s
2011 James Hearst Poetry Prize and in the 2014 Eco Arts Award in Creative
Excellence.
His poetry and/or flash fiction and mini-plays have appeared in Slant, Bryant
Literary Review, Connecticut River Review, The South Dakota Review, The Evansville
Review, North American Review, The MacGuffin, and many other publications.
His play That Perfect Moment, co-written with Charles Bartlett, was a headliner
at the NOHO Arts Center in North Hollywood, California, and The Little Victory in the
2009-10 seasons.
www.jcooperpoetry.com
is an honor student in mathematics, English, and music at Liceo parroquial San Antonio,
Viña Del Mar, Chile. He also sings and plays lead guitar for the jazz-fusion
band Insanenuss, and lives in Quilpué, Chile.
