The prisoner’s dilemma

The prisoner’s dilemma

Tania Carrera

She is a poet and singer. She has published the poetry collections Espejos (Gato Negro Editorial, 2013) and Un dios lubricante (www. undioslubricante.com, 2015; Editorial Fund of the State of Morelos, 2018)

I repeated, with a foreing voice inside prayers I could not beleive. The noble childhood trust and sing certainties As shared lies. Age dries the mouth, however and shut down the truth: There will be always a first time That lead us to the last one. Hopelessly linked no permission to die no permission to war. Forced to enjoy according our own luck. So, we learn to enjoy in the shadow because we felt it above us among us, below us: before us and we only got left the freedom of a smile.

Maybe that´s why we are so clumpsy We laugh at the one who falls We laugh when it hurts And we go out at night toasting for our failure We laugh at the tragedy Because it is right to declare it.

It is right to say

No more I´ll stay her under the shadow of this tree fresh like death on the roadside.

The thorax, nevertheless, swells and thins, And dance as sheets in the wind.

But make no mistake, This is not about violence. Nor should we call ir love. Solidarity is as drastic as a mathematical dilemma in which words are missing to explain our meaning and speculation are abundant to name our worth.

Who could ask you to come and lay under the tree? Who could ask you not to cry, to stop? That´s the pain that life bring us That´s the faith we ascribe to death A fair faith, without imagination: A simple, poor and neat rest.

We cooperate, against the guilt to believe that we are the same: mud and beauty much, much more beauty than debris.

(Translated by Marisol Sahagún Pérez)