May 9, 2006

• 

  I AM

  I am soaring, snowcapped peaks
  and flat, grassy plains
  I am lush rivers gurgling over
  smooth stones and rocks
  I am lanky eucalyptus forests
  hushing in the breeze

  I am the sound of toads
  croaking in the damp of night…
  of cicadas chirring and macaws
  calling in the jungle.
  I am the chirping of birds,
  the cooing of pigeons and doves,
  and the horn of the gas truck.

  I am the smell of fritada and potatoes,
  fried bread and cheese…
  I am humitas, llapingachos,
  Fioravanti and Agua Güitig
  I am café con leche,
  and fried eggs,
  jugo de tomate de árbol,
  naranjilla,
  and powdered milk

  I am the páramo, [the highlands]
      the selva [the jungle]
         the costa [the coast]

  I am pristinely crisp, fresh,
  high-altitude air,
  and polluted inner-city diesel.
  I am roses and flower gardens
  and rich, dark dirt.

  I am ponchos and tagua nut,
  bamboo and balsa
  I am weavings, wood carvings,
  straw, pottery and beads

  I am your deepest roots
  the intensest of blue skies
  all-consuming grey-clouded thunderstorms
  and natural caves

  I am large, heavily-populated cities
  and vast untouched landscapes
  I am the middle of the earth
  and the beginning of evolution

  I am erupting volcanoes
  and enormous landslides,
  I am earthquakes and floods
  I am waterfalls, lakes, and oceans
  natural hot springs,
  and carbonated mineral baths

  I am power plants,
      generators,
          and camp fires,
  mansions
       mud huts
         and plastic tents
  chandeliers
      flashlights
         and candles

  I am shopping malls
   … and beggars,
  I am roadside impromptu barbecue stands
  I am saltwater taffy
  pulled from a hook in a doorway
  and fresh-cut sugarcane
  dripping with sweetness

  I am open-air butchers with dripping blood and flies.
  I am home-pasteurized, dairy-fresh milk
  I am street-side fruit stands
  with sellers calling out their wares
  I am handsewn clothes

  I am bricks and mortar, and paved highways

  I am thatched roofs, and dirt walls, and cobblestone roads

  I am split bamboo and stilts and dirt paths

  
  

  I am unexplored and untouched wilderness

  I am walls and fences,

  chain link, concertina, and barbed wire

  
  I am revolution and political upheaval
  I am celebrations and dancing
  I am holiday after holiday after holiday.

  I am the depths and heights of humanity
  I am the heights and depths of nature
  I am peace and tranquility and love
  I am the essence of life.

  *
  You are from here…
  and here is where you still belong.

  © drc 2006
  

  photos all of Ecuador.
  Photo credits unknown

  • 6:16 pm
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