Seems blue tarp
____is the new shade this season,
____and light comes battery and generator driven.
What the wind stripped
____was patina of paradise and the skin beneath
____not that heavenly.
Seems mud, the default color
____of shoes, and shelter will be
____what you make of it.
Citizen might be a word
____with alternative meanings, like truth,
____like inalienable.
And now time and space
____betray a difference, this far from Houston.
____Island is more than metaphor.
Seems mainland
____just what it says it is, announcing itself
____even as it renounces.
What San Juan is becoming,
____is a place to be from. We’re learning
____the meaning of diaspora.
Future is a word
____we avoid saying aloud. We’re busy eating
____our dreams.
Bastard child
____that we are, we’ll let you know
____when we’ve quit praying.
Photo credit: daniel sandoval, Creative Commons, Flickr
