Cahuita

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What is the segue after continuous rain? Admit
these jottings lack temporal order —
impossible to write as thought strikes.
The wheels go round, the wheels of the bus go
round in paroxysms, bouncing
my swollen bladder. Include that?
Why leave it out? Decentered agony.
Animal nature won’t let go of its grip
on muscle, capillary and neuron.
In vast banana plantations, suspended
from each dwarf tree, a blue nylon sack
holds the ponderous bunch of fruit.
The two room houses on stilts have no running water.
Women manage water. The social history of plantations
lies in the management of water: cooking water, washing water,
waste water. Infections, constant rain. I carry a guide
to the flowers of the rain forest and the five hundred
                                                                 species of hummingbird.

Donald Wellman | Mudlark No. 34
Contents | “Cahuita, with its gravel and mud tracks ...”