Country Between Us

IN SALVADOR, 1978-80"In memory of Monsignor Oscar Romero"Caminante, no hay caminoSe hace camino al andar.Antonio MachadoSAN ONOFRE, CALIFORNIAWe have come far south.Beyond here, the oldest womenshelling limas into black shawls. Portillo scratching his name on the walls, the slender ribbons of piss, children patting the mud. If we go on, we might stop in the street in the very place where someone disappeared and the words Come with us! we might hear them. If that happened, we would lead our lives with our hands tied together. That is why we feel it is enough to listen to the wind jostling lemons, to dogs ticking across the terraces, knowing that while birds and warmer weather are forever moving north, the cries of those who vanish might take years to get here. 1977THE ISLANDFOR CLARIBEL ALFGRIAIN Deya when the mist rises out of the rocks it comes so close to her hands she could tear it to pieces like bread. She holds her drink and motions with one hand to describe this: what she would do with so many baskets of bread. Mi "prieta," Asturias called her, my dark little one. Neruda used the word "negrita," and it is true: her eyes, her hair, both violent, as black as certain mornings have been for the last fourteen years. She wears a white cotton dress. Tiny mirrors have been stitched to it--when I look for myself in her, I see the same face over and over. of a Slavic factory girl, the pale hair of mixed blood. Although Jose Marti has saidForche, Carolyn is the author of 'Country Between Us', published 1982 under ISBN 9780060909260 and ISBN 0060909269.