Bestiary (I)

The clandestine antelope

comes to be in bonfire:

Its muzzle feeds on flame

and its tail seems like smoke.

Come and go the blazes

through that antler crown

and the animal, faithful to its sign,

resolves the strange system

of its ardent aliment

leaving like punctuations

behind its burnt tail

a tacit necklace of amber.

Pablo Neruda