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Eves Dream
finding an egg of the moon
in roadside litter
so far from
its miniature planet
she steps
without knowing why
crushing
the soft white roundness
exposing
the tiny coiled serpent
within
Birth Order
Which came first
the constellations
or those glittering tales
about hunters and bears
swans, water dippers
Pegasus?
Which twin is older
the graceful flying horse
seen at midnight
or this timid one with silent wings
of feathered sunlight
rising
from a single
familiar
star?
Cloud Forest
I saw her drifting between strangler figs in the land of howler monkeys
and long-tailed orchids, where hummingbirds flicker like stars
and moths dress their wings in feathered ceremonial robes
of floating night
I knew her at once, my younger self, the double everyone
longs to find
youth imposed upon age, rediscovered, almost claimed
I saw her in the forest
but our eyes did not meet
we did not speak
I let her go
she already had my life
I already knew her dreams
It's a comfort to know she's still out there somewhere
in the mist between trees
growing old
almost wise.
Amphibious
(a prose poem inspired by Cuban folklore)
First the ship sank. Then a pearl diver willed himself
downwards to see the wreck and find its treasure. Holding his breath for
so long seemed impossible, but he succeeded. Instead of
gemstones and gold, the diver found a great horse. Yes, an aquatic horse,
galloping along the floor of the sea, a brave underwater steed with fins the
shape of wings, and a tail that floated like seaweed...
The diver returned to shore so quickly that everyone knew
something was wrong. Never before had he held his breath for such a brief
moment. He ran along the beach, snorting and leaping, insane, a beast..
Gradually, as they watched the diver galloping with joy,
people began to wonder. What sort of transformation had they
witnessed? Maybe the diver was not insane after all.
Perhaps he had not lost his mind. Maybe he had simply been made whole.
Maybe they were the ones who lacked wing-shaped fins and floating tails...
Margarita Engle is a botanist and the Cuban-American
author of two "magic realistic" novels, Singing to
Cuba (Arte Publico Press) and Skywriting (Bantam).
Her shorter works appear in journals such as Atlanta Review,
Bilingual Review, California Quarterly, LUNA,
Poetry Midwest, and Poetry Greece.
Her experimental work appears in Blackbird,
Indefinite Space, Prakalpana Literature
(India), and Year's Best Fantasy and Horror
(St. Martin's Press,1996). Engle's literary awards
include a San Diego Book Award and a Cintas Fellowship.
Extensive travel in Cuba and other parts of Latin
America has influenced her writing.
englefam@earthlink.net
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