Odyssey


	25 May 1999, El Hato

	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.