The Last Photograph Poem by Javier Campos

That girl you see
in the corner of the picture
was you
when someone told you to smile
when dressed in colorful clothes
an instantaneous ray
imprisoned your image
next to a waving
flag
that covered
the other corner of the picture

your only sin was to smile at life
and remain forever
in a black and white portrait

you were a teenager
hanging out on the boulevards
with the crowd
that wanted to change the universe

For that eternal gesture
the photographer
shared with you
they looked for you throughout the land

as if you were a dangerous
beauty
able to blow up tanks
and whole armies

just with your smile
and a flag

that’s why they followed you dressed in black
through the darkest passageways
of that photograph
by sea and by land
until they found your image
which they slowly
developed
in a darkroom.

(Poem translated from Spanish by Nick W.Hill)