INTO NICARAGUA
We played nice with the officious border guards.
They stamped our passports like driving nails through the paper.
Villagers paid little attention to us.
We looked as harmless as a light breeze.
We drove up and down hills and around cattle.
When lost, we asked for directions in broken Spanish.
Rations were kept purposely low – rice and beans.
Our stomachs filled up not one bit.
We bathed in the shallows of the rivers,
always with an eye out in case of reptilian company.
We slept in the car with windows rolled down,
just enough so no jaguar could crawl in.
Our imaginations got a workout, as shapes stole
stealthily through jungle, other eyes shone in the night.
No matter where we were, there was never any emptiness.
Butterflies were like jewels, the heat, a crown of thorns.
I kept a diary. You just wrote things down in your head.
We parted soon after. We never did compare