EPIFANIA

One Sunday
Epifania didn't come home.

I heard people talking
telling how a man had taken her away
and later, questioning the maids,
I found he had taken her to a room.
I didn't know where it was, this room,
but I imagined it, cold, bare,
a floor of damp earth,
it's only door one to the street.
Whenever I thought about the room
I couldn't see anyone in it.
Epifania came back one afternoon
and I chased her round the garden
wanting her to tell me what the man had done to her
because my room was empty
like a parcel with no surprises.
Epifania laughed and ran
and in the end opened the door
and let the street come into the garden.