Into the Wild Spaces

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.