I'm a lost cause

An astute critic finally revealed
(I knew they'd find out someday)
that I'm partial in my fiction
and he urges me tangentially
to become neutral
like any self-respecting intellectual

I think he's right

I'm partial
of this there can be no doubt
moreover I'd say I'm hopelessly partial
a lost cause in the end
since no matter how hard I try
I'll never be able to be neutral

in various countries on this continent
distinguished specialists
have done the possible and the impossible
to cure me of my partiality
for example the national library in my country
ordered a partial expurgation
of my partial books
in argentina they gave me forty-eight hours
to leave (or they'd have killed me)
with my partiality on my back
finally in peru they held my partiality incommunicado
and deported me

had I been neutral
I wouldn't have needed
all that intensive therapy
but what can I do
I'm partial
incurably partial
and although it might sound a bit strange
totally
partial

yes I know‬
that means I won't be able to aspire
to the many honors and reputations
and invocations and distinctions
that the world reserves for intellectuals
who are self-respecting
who, in other words, are neutral
and since there are fewer and fewer who are neutral
the distinctions are shared
by just a few

after all and given
my confessed limitations
I have to admit that I have a certain admiration
for the few who are neutral
or rather I reserve a certain awe for them
since in reality you need a steel temple
to remain neutral through episodes like
the bay of pigs
tlatelolco
trelew
pando
la moneda

it's clear that you
and maybe this is what the critic wanted to tell me
can be partial in private life
and neutral in belles lettres
for example you could get indignant at pinochet
in the middle of the night
and write short stories the next day
about atlantis

it's not a bad idea
and of course
there's the advantage
that on the one hand
you'd have a conflicted conscience
and that's always a sign of
a good foundation for art
and on the other hand it doesn't leave you vulnerable
to beatings from the bourgeois and/or neutral press

it's not a bad idea
but
I already find myself discovering or imagining
on the sunken continent
the existence of the oppressed and their oppressors
the partial and the neutral
the tortured and the tyrannical
in other words the same ballgame―‬
cuba yes yankees no―
that's found on not-sunken continents

therefore
as it seems I have no other choice
and I'm definitely a write-off
for fruitful neutrality
most likely I'll keep on writing
stories that aren't neutral
and poems and essays and songs and novels
that aren't neutral
but I'm warning you that they'll be that way
even if they don't deal with tortures and jails
or other topics apparently
intolerable to neutrals
they'll be that way even if they deal with butterflies
and clouds and goblins and little fish.