La Planta 14

The 14th Floor

On the fourteenth floor of the mine shaft
of the yellow afternoon three men did not return
there are sirens, laments, gathered breaths
at the mouth of the shaft.

Two mourning women longing for two bodies
and a mother who chews on her agony in silence
it's the third one.

At ten the clear moon
reflects on the rings of the newly arrived Boss
with a hat, gravity, and his bored gesture.
He has been the first, governors will come
mayors, engineers.
they will try to calm down,
the foreseen widow who bites her handkerchief
they won't know how to approach the mother who looks at them
with dry eyes.

At twelve the boss will look at his watch
the others have already left
and in a separate point he will show annoyance
while thinking where are these?

Another shift of firefighters has arrived
and it was ten to one at night
the first one dead
Sitting on the ground, the miners
cross themselves and curse God
who would have thought the repeated tragedy would catch them by surprise
sometimes the bravest one remains
staring fixedly at the boss
with clenched teeth
And the boss with a hat,
has two policemen by his side, no worries

Three slow hours pass
in the light of the frightened lanterns
the priest with tearful eyes
joins the second one over the chest with his hands
and a fifteen-year-old boy
while crying helplessly hugs a tree
and the boss's driver with his flat cap
feels displaced, he is a prudent man,
well tamed.
The dew has soaked to the bones when the third one comes out
he is greeted with a gray-blue smile by dawn
and with voices the miners
while they all embrace and one of them
the fiercest one for not going to the boss
cries on the ground.