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Thursday, April 16, 2020

A Day in Puerto Rico


A Day in Puerto Rico


West African winds are warming the cordillera
while workers straggle up the side of the mountain.
They wear canvas pouched harnesses for picking
the red ripened fruit of the coffee plantation.
A Jamaican chorus sings a song of redemption
to those who sold their strength and independence.
Clouds drop shadows before disappearing
down Maravilla to the Loiza and the ocean.
Dolphins hazard the broadside of the Cataño ferry.
El Morro guards its passage across San Juan Bay.
Old domino players in La Plaza del Sol
place their pieces without lifting their arms.
They sway unperturbed to flowering palms.
Their talk incongruous; their voices one song,
diminished beneath the traffic of Old San Juan.
Flamboyáns bloom and the pasafinós prance
from Ceiba to Orocovis, west to Mayaguez.
The vesper bell sounds for the Carmelite sisters;
who attend to their prayers for lost señoritas.

4/27/2011

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