La Perra

La Perra

Aullo, Aullo, then I lick the wounds that la patada left me.
It doesn’t hurt that much, not really…
He is my master, he is good to me, he loves me.
I know because he said so.
Long ago it was…
Long ago he used to take care of me.
He used to pet me tenderly.
Long ago he would take me to see places.
He was proud of me, but that was long ago.

Knives cut my stomach, as I try to get up and walk.
My eyes are blurry now. I can’t see straight.
A week…
Has it been a week since he last fed me?...
Pain fills my insides…
But he loves me, I know he does…
I must have done something really terrible for him to be this mad.

I must be a good girl.
I sit patiently…
I wait for him with my pretty face…
There he is, my master…
Joy fills my heart…
I am la perra…
That’s what he calls me…

I see him now with another one…
She looks like me, but he doesn’t call her perra…
He is kind to her…
Just like he was to me, so long ago.

I crawl silently to his feet…
Wanting, needing, crying, begging for some love…
He kicks me again…
And again, and again…

Pain runs through my whole body…
Burning now…
Breaking my bones and my flesh…
The weight of the world over me now…

I feel weak; I can’t get up this time…
I bleed, sangro, sangro!!!
The place turns to night now…
I feel…
Life escaping me now…

I hear him...
His distant voice saying: mamita, mamita, wake up!!!
I close my eyes again…

People over me…
I see their eyes, sticking out of suits made out of clouds.
They fix me…
I’m alive…

He is kind now…
I knew he loved me…

I am well again…
I look for his love…
He kicks me again…
And again he calls me perra…

I get up…
I look at my reflection on a piece of broken mirror…
The mirror that he threw at me minutes ago…
I see…
What do I see?...
I am not la perra…
I am a woman…
But he…
He is still my master.