LORRAINE CAPUTO

SALANGO

In the garúa mist of ancient dawns
your ancestors sailed these seas
from Atacama to Acapulco
Trading scarlet-orange spondylus
& milky-white perla concha

Spondylus – mullu, they called it
the food of gods …
now a forbidden fruit …

In this mid-day sun
you sit mending meters of fishing nets
Your wooden boats pulled ashore
awaiting the next tide
to go asea

GATHERING THE DUSK

Where the warm sea
washes across grey sands
I have returned

& now I sit on this balcony
watching the mango sun
near the horizon

Spreading its golden rays
across the platinum-
blue waters

silhouetting palm trees
that cast shadows where
a soccer game was played

The evening song of birds
erupts in this
gathering sunset

that casts a shimmering
gilded-hibiscus mosaic
across swimmers bobbing

in the calmed waves
of this sea bathed
in glowing rays

In the opaline sunset
dusk gathers
in palm & almond leaves

cows wander
the grey strand
those soccer players

gather around a driftwood
& flotsam bonfire, sharp smoke
driving away jejenes & zancudos

The sun slips beyond
banded clouds pale gold
& mandarin orange

a celestial cinder
glowing orange to red
sinking beyond this Pacific

& I still sit on this balcony
gathering the dusk
as it sinks into night

bathed in a cool
salty breeze
swelling off the sea

Wandering troubadour Lorraine Caputo’s poetry appears in over 400 journals on six continents, and 24 collections of poetry – including In the Jaguar Valley (dancing girl press, 2023) and Santa Marta Ayres (Origami Poems Project, 2024). 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 and the Pushcart Prize. Caputo has done literary readings from Alaska to the Patagonia. She journeys through Latin America with her faithful knapsack Rocinante, listening to the voices of the pueblos and Earth. Follow her adventures at http://www.facebook.com/lorrainecaputo.wanderer or https://latinamericawanderer.wordpress.com.