Margarita doesn't want to move again.
Her mind drifts back to Cuba,
and her kidnapping by Nicaraguan slavers.
She thinks about the man who freed her,
how he beat her, how she ran.
To the hum of hungry chainsaws,
squatters’ quarrels, high-tide thrashing,
she stirs breakfast for touristas:
gallo pinto. "Pura vida!"

Monkeys yodel, toucans scream,
Margarita's eyes fog-over.
No one wants to leave the Corcovado.



gallo pinto -- spicy rice-and-bean dish
"Pura vida!" -- "Excellent!" (literally 'pure life')
Corcovado -- rainforest on Costa Rica’s Pacific coast

Wordcarver's Poetry Collection
'Roots in the Rainforest' © 2002 pua sandabar
used by permission