Meanwhile is the word — Web Exclusive
By Eduardo Milán
Translated by John Oliver Simon
Meanwhile is the word
that ought to be wiped off the map. An expression
as ordinary as a basket of apples, red and shining
as the fresh‐swept streets of Heaven, which means
not everything is ordinary. If there's a place on the map
for the word meanwhile that's an outrage, that's like
loving your murderer, the dead man's debt, the debtors
so to say the Cabbalists, the willing, the key.
Why a map? Why can't we escape from the mountains,
spirits who block the gifts with their chests? Topography,
typical word. Come and measure, bring calculators,
wink one eye, cover up with eyelashes. Get on the bus,
go down the mountain road. You can't lose.
Everyone's a winner. And all of it, absolutely all, seen from childhood.