LORRAINE CAPUTO - POEMS

Poet-translator Lorraine Caputo’s works appear in over 250 journals on six continents; and 18 collections of poetry – including On Galápagos Shores (dancing girl press, 2019) and Escape to the Sea (Origami Poems Project, 2021). She journeys through Latin America, listening to the voices of the pueblos and Earth.

ECHOES ​

Up on the holy hill 
      barks a pack of isolated dogs 
            each caged in its own house 
Gunshots reverberate 
      down the streets 
A lone car passes 
      through the desolation 
The music, the voices of a late, late movie 
      filter from some darkened room 
            its windows closed against the chill 
Water in the plaza fountain 
      tumbles, spilling upon worn stones 
Heavy clouds make this 
      city’s night lighter 
 
A distant church tolls the 
      three-o’clock hour 
Then a nearer one 
      a nearer one 
The deep solid clangs   
      resonate down narrow alleys 
            down these empty streets 
 
 ​

SEASIDE SUNRISE ​

Slowly day 
lightens the sea- 
misted sky, silhouetting 
thorn trees 
 
Below my balcony 
a pace of burros 
walks through 
the dry forest 
 
the twig-snap 
the leaf-crunch 
barely heard above 
the surf’s wash 
 
At a distant 
bamboo house 
a cock greets 
the borning day 
 ​