By: Lorraine Caputo

NEW YEAR DELAYED

After yet-another-all-day rain, the Old Man Years cannot be set aflame. They are tossed in the trash, to be drowned in the yet-another-all-night shower in the midnight hour painted with fireworks sizzling in the frigid rain.

Shortly after the grey of this new year dawns, the earth jolts …

& this night, cold seeps to the bone. The full moon is hidden behind those rain-laden clouds. The silence of the end of this first day now & then is broken by fireworks not set skyward last night.

DREAMING WITH HORMIGAS VOLADORES

This November Bolivian rain began again
before the morning twilight
Thunder rumbles my dreams

& with the break of another grey day
it runs down the tejas, into the
patio passage below

Clouds of hormigas voladores swarm
through the air – & they land
on the wet balcony, their delicate
black wings becoming soaked & heavy
& they die
A lone one enters my open door &
flutters above my bed

Bolts of lightning near, raggedly tearing
the sky … Their quick thunder
shakes me into a song
Qué viva Changó Qué viva Changó
& the burnt smell of ozone drifts
into my open door

The lightning & thunder have fled
A few hormigas voladores remain
fluttering above the tejas
& the rain … the rain continues to
flow down those roof tiles, into
the passage below

COUNTING THE WORLD

One is being sola – quiet time alone
Two is you & I, talking, sharing
Three is nature – heaven, earth & waters
Four … East, West … your North, my South …
Five – our star body: head, hands, feet
Six is the honey comb of bees
Seven … is this poem’s very last line

***

Lorraine Caputo is a documentary poet, translator and travel writer. Her works appear in over 400 journals on six continents; and 23 collections of poetry – including In the Jaguar Valley (dancing girl press, 2023) and Caribbean Interludes (Origami Poems Project, 2022). She also authors travel narratives, articles and guidebooks. Her writing has been honored by the Parliamentary Poet Laureate of Canada (2011) and nominated for the Best of the Net. Caputo has done literary readings from Alaska to the Patagonia. She journeys through Latin America, listening to the voices of the pueblos and Earth.