<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; "><span><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="font-size: 14pt; ">The Soldiers in the Garden</font></font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Times New Roman'"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 19px;"><br></span></font></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; "><span><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="font-size: 14pt; "></font></font></span> </p><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; "><i><span><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="font-size: 14pt; ">Isla Negra, Chile, September 1973</font></font></span></i></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; "><i><span><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="font-size: 14pt; "></font></font></span></i> </div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; "><span><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="font-size: 14pt; ">After the coup,</font></font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; "><span><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="font-size: 14pt; ">the soldiers appeared</font></font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; "><span><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="font-size: 14pt; ">in Neruda’s garden one night,</font></font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; "><span><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="font-size: 14pt; ">raising lanterns to interrogate the trees,</font></font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; "><span><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="font-size: 14pt; ">cursing at the rocks that tripped them.</font></font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; "><span><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="font-size: 14pt; ">From the bedroom window</font></font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; "><span><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="font-size: 14pt; ">they could have been</font></font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; "><span><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="font-size: 14pt; ">the conquistadores of drowned galleons,</font></font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; "><span><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="font-size: 14pt; ">back from the sea to finish</font></font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; "><span><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="font-size: 14pt; ">plundering the coast.</font></font></span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; "><span><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="font-size: 14pt; "></font></font></span> </p><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; "><span><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="font-size: 14pt; ">The poet was dying;</font></font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; "><span><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="font-size: 14pt; ">cancer flashed through his body</font></font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; "><span><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="font-size: 14pt; ">and left him rolling in the bed to kill the flames.</font></font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; "><span><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="font-size: 14pt; ">Still, when the lieutenant stormed upstairs,</font></font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; "><span><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="font-size: 14pt; ">Neruda faced him and said;</font></font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; "><i><span><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="font-size: 14pt; ">There is only one danger for you here: poetry.</font></font></span></i></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; "><span><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="font-size: 14pt; ">The lieutenant brought his helmet to his chest,</font></font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; "><span><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="font-size: 14pt; ">apologized to senor Neruda</font></font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; "><span><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="font-size: 14pt; ">and squeezed himself back down the stairs.</font></font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; "><span><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="font-size: 14pt; ">the lanterns dissolved one by one from the trees.</font></font></span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; "><span><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="font-size: 14pt; "></font></font></span> </p><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; "><span><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="font-size: 14pt; ">For thirty years</font></font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; "><span><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="font-size: 14pt; ">we have been searching</font></font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; "><span><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="font-size: 14pt; ">for another incantation</font></font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; "><span><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="font-size: 14pt; ">to make the soldiers</font></font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; "><span><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="font-size: 14pt; ">vanish from the garden.</font></font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; "><span><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="font-size: 14pt; "><br></font></font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; "><span><font face="Times New Roman"><font style="font-size: 14pt; "><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- </font></font></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; ">Martin Espada</span></div></body></html>