Back to Seville, Back to Cambridge

Seville,
even the word sounds strange to me now
unfamiliar

How long had I been gone?
How long had I been back?
Did it matter?

I tried to find the rhythm
of the world where I used to live.

I followed the current,
I was attentive and assertive.

I made a conscious effort to pronounce the phrases,
and perform the millions of sounds and gestures
that constitute the life in Andalusia.

I studied these actions
until they became reflexes again,
but I was haunted by the idea
that I remember her wrong.


Cambridge,
even the word sounds strange to me now
unfamiliar

How long had I been gone?
How long had I been back?
Did it matter?

I tried to find the rhythm
of the world where I used to live.

I followed the current,
I was responsive and attentive.

I made a conscious effort to pronounce the phrases,
and perform the millions of sounds and gestures
that constitute the life in England.

I studied these actions
until they became reflexes again,
but I was haunted by the idea
that I remember her wrong.

That somehow I was wrong about everything.