STROESSNER OR THE MASK
(The Sign)

Alfredo Stroessner, loneliest policeman in the world,
stands, just look at him,
arms crossed, lazy as a leech,
systematically surveying his private galaxy (Paraguay),
thinking in the shrinking time-space left to him
about that possibility without adjectives growing ever more
               apparent
that his mother and mentor Death will, any night now,
place between his sheets
unbeknownst to him
a rattlesnake.

From that day on
the God of Hell will know his name perfectly
and neither the exquisite body of the most beautiful and
               dangerous of his homosexuals
nor the collection of masks that made him famous
will have any meaning
and by that time even that magical mask elaborated with
               such loving care
(a most secret gift of the Pentagon)
will have lost the splendor of the first degree of beauty
that had the power to instantly transform him
into a loving father who would cheerfully give you
               the last rags off his back.