Beyond Bruegel’s Shore
Somewhere in Nicaragua or Guatemala, it doesn’t matter, his wings ache from so much wax, so much discord in his father’s voice, how once he fled the wards of the state through air & sky; so simple and so exact he fell from the clouds, yet no one cared; not the hospitals, not the impoverished nor the imprisoned. For years, his body entrapped in confinement branching the dreadful diagrams of his nerves. And yet he has begun a new life, one of labor, of wife & child, his house asleep by the shore, a few cattle battering the fattening ground. But something has begun to crack, that dizzy spell of mist, that depth sweeping over him, blaring in the dark that thick rough side of the sea. This time he set up his gear because he had to, because he had no choice but to curse the coming waters. This time he swooped so low he could finger the waves, dropped so low the foam soaked his hull of feathers. It's just as well, he banished it all to the barn. The plowing goes on, but today in Central America, it does matter, another boy fell from the sky, chicken fluff & all, body tangled, indeed body tangled. And there was no one around.
Credit
Copyright © 2017 William Archila. Used with permission of the author. “Beyond Bruegel’s Shore” originally appeared in Prairie Schooner, Winter, 2017.
Date Published
12/01/2017