YOUR ABSENCE 

I look at your portrait, 
and I paint a smile with the brightness of your eyes… 
I fall silent when I get home. 
I call you less
I try out discretions
I modify poems
I practice a new now. 
I balance so as not to fall, 
my war sews moons into a flag of truce
Between twilights, fear wants an end of warm sand. 
Maybe I'm not the same, 
Maybe there isn't a maybe that rescues me
With your absence there is no reflection that confirms… 
Not even a piece of truth that shows the sky
My eyes like stones face uncertain futures, 
And they cry inside.


GRACIELA NOEMI VILLAVERDE is a writer and poet from Concepción del Uruguay (Entre Rios) Argentina, based in Buenos Aires She graduated in letters and is the author of seven books of poetry, awarded several times worldwide. She works as the World Manager of Educational and Social Projects of the Hispanic World Union of Writers and is the UHE World Honorary President of the same institution Activa de la Sade, Argentine Society of Writers. She is the Commissioner of Honor in the executive cabinet IN THE EDUCATIONAL AND SOCIAL RELATIONS DIVISION, of the UNACCC SOUTH AMERICA ARGENTINA CHAPTER.