Argentina

Through a horse’s eyes,

Mournful horizons curve into themselves;

Thunderous distances drum creole

Into the Atlantic mariner’s reverie.

Death can gain no purchase here

Against sheer heights of pride.



In the Museum of Natural Science,

Megafauna skeletons

Glum obscenely in glass cases;

Gliptodon, megatherium,toxodon,macrauchenia.

Fantastic superbly designed lords of creation,

Production lines cancelled and abandoned

Three million years ago,

No longer economical, alas.


The fearful face of an Inca child

Sacrificed and mummified,

Knocked dead with a blunt weapon,

Then abandoned on a peak.



Words, Jesuit missions

On the savage pampa,

Work to reduce the wild.

Black priest of the Vatican,

I plant a peach orchard

Under the alien sky.