Grushenka Monsalve Berbesi – How many stars

Grushenka Monsalve Berbesi – International Relations Student. IE University.

Reading:

How many stars by Andrés Eloy Blanco from the book Barco de Piedra, 1937.

The last night we spent together,
you asked:
“How many stars are there in heaven?”
“Three hundred and fifty thousand.”
“Really?”
“Really”

Be quiet. I don’t want to hear those things tonight.
If tonight you ask how many stars there are in heaven
or anything else, then ask something like do you love me?
Are you cold? Who’s hungry?

Tonight, ask something that can be answered in the world without words.
Think with all your blood
about something the world might always have asked,
something like who’s that crying?
Is anything missing?

And you will see that everything’s missing
and you’ll know how many stars there are in heaven
when you know that there is only one star in heaven
for each moment,
because with the loss of one the Universe takes a shadowy step.