The Secret

Where are you lying
secret of the world
with so strong an odor?
Sometimes a gentle workman
in the feverish town
falls from a scaffolding
and the wind always smells of lilacs;
a tenacious misfortune
lodges in the most beautiful bodies
hands tighten in the evening
an animal sleeps
within walls wrought by men
peace forever decays
and war no longer
has an age.