Arch back, reaching away
from the soft earth that sustains you,
Eyes high to spirals traced in starlight
wrapped in curling sheets of woodsmoke
from endless kitchen fires
spinning in the Coriolis loops
of excrement settling in pit latrines
and Managua traffic's orbits
Rise, Reach, Release
upward upward until
world spinning helpless
beneath your feet like pedals,
Heronlike, soar,
with gentle ivory wingbeats
over fractured, burning Nicaragua:
ashes creep up hillsides,
searing humanity penetrates the
silken verdure of centuries-old forest.
Follow those fractures, scars broad and winding,
gullies of poverty, seeds fallen
beneath the light,
Shattered, gasping,
Break the turquoise surface of
warm tropical sea,
Undulate in seafoam and
reef fish, like
clothing on the lavandero,
stroked by suds and gnarled hands,
Awash in this Odyssey,
This Nicaragua.
