Friday, April 5, 2013

Over Ecuador by Connor Kaplan



Over Ecuador By Connor Kaplan
A chain of mountains splitting the country in half.
Currents of Amazonian water flow,
cutting through the mountains like snake
weaving through the sand looking for water.

On one side a barricade of trees
housing creatures of legends and new myths.
On the other the air smells of saline.
With farmland clashing with urban life sounds
intrigue the visitors and the locals.

As the farmer finishes his long day
cutting cocoa of the branch, pulling
cassava roots that taste like potatoes,
and tending for the livestock they hold dear,
he or she looks towards the sky as the
sun sets creating a hue of orange.
As the cities moon rises the people
turn on the lights to make night look day.

The forest chooses not sleep at night,
instead sounds of frogs and insects chirp loudly,
all through the miles of vines and giant roots,
creating songs that each tree listens to.

Off the coast lays archipelago.
Islands covered in Darwinistic life,
baffling wonder of the select few
who come to the islands of the tortoise.

With iguanas swimming in the ocean,
finches with different beaks and colors,
crabs larger than most birds under the docks,
and giant tortoises with saddle backs
give these islands mystery and appeal.

Oh how I cannot wait to revisit.

Over Greenland
A current like a noise machine through sleep.
Blue lichen fields. Mossed boulders. Waking up
to ice cubes cracking in a plastic cup

and voices (“awesome for the Hong Kong branch
. . . well, most of all we miss our daughter . . . ”) I still
see it: the climb up slate as runnels spill

from some bare misted summit like a source.
Whatever sense this dream might make
to others. And whatever when they wake

they also have been dreaming. Rivers of faces
down hallways, merging, as desires mesh
and fissure. Cash for clothes or arms or flesh.

And if there is no towering sublime
where all comes clear to all, no final climb
through cloud, like some old Bible illustration:

how could that ever stop the current flowing
out of the glass at JFK: skin glowing
plumb and peach as we walk inside the sun.

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