Marco Mejía (Colombia)

Por: Marco Mejía
Traductor: Laura Chalar

PROMETEO
Latinamerican Poetry MAgazine
Nº 86-87. July de 2010.

THE PRODIGAL SON

Father, I have come back before your house which was once my house
Years have passed and in your face everything is shadowy
Many things I knew:
The slaves ebony body
The strange fruits flavor
The runaway sensation of drunkenness
The secret hallucination of Eleusis
In nights with no day I participated in mysterious rites
conjugating flames and blood
In days with no sunset I bathed my body in rivers
which the faithful called sacred
I felt immortality in pleasure
and death in misery´s pain
Before arriving to this door
my mouth became bitter with the flavor of pigs’ food 
I lost everything
I wasted everything
I know that you are old and death will knock soon on your heart
You have farmed this land your whole life
And your eyes have never seen another horizon
That´s why I have come back
Not to beg for your pardon
I have come back to take you with me

Marco Mejía  (Caldas, Antioquia, Colombia). Philosopher and investigative and cultural journalist. He has published The Fragrance of Identity; Horn of Image; The Cemetery dissidents and The Sea of Grace. Contributor of essays, short stories and poems to the literary magazine of the newspapers El Colombiano, El Mundo and El Espectador; as well as to the reviews Signs in the Bonfire (of which he was also a founder), Writings (UPB) and Cieloroto. He directed the documentary series The House, produced by Comfenalco and Mincultura, and took part in the production of the short films Cierraojos, 1981; Prayer to Frighten Fear, 1982; The Carrier of Men, 1983, and The Cutwater and the Lily of the Incas, 1984. First Poetry Prize of the Antioqueña Teaching Profession, 1988; second poetry prize of the Medellín municipality, 1922; Gold Pen Medal, 1933; Ciro Mendía Poetry Prize, 1994, and first prize in the Latin American Essay Prize René Uribe Ferrer, 1996. He is now Coordinator of Cultural Promotion and Spread of the Caja de Compensación Familiar Comfenalco, Antioquia.