Amazon Cantos

I.
Before sunset
    Sangay looms on the 
        northwest horizon
Clouds swiftly slip
    across the heavens

Until dusk settles

I watch that quadrant
    wondering if that
        flickering red glow
Is lava flowing
    down steep slopes

Soon Sangay       the near-
    half-moon        & Scorpio
        disappear beneath gathering clouds 

& a heat suffocates
    this new night


II.
Two a.m.

Tentative drops strike
    the tin roof

Then pelt &
    pelt & pelt
        steadily

Until the dawn


III.
The rush of the 
    river below braiding
        through gravel bars

The rustle of leaves
    in the wind of
        a grey day

Clouds slowly lifting
    to reveal the
        verdant jungle


IV.
Near sunset
    the clouds
        finally break
& snowy Sangay
    appears ghostly
        against pale blue sky
A thin rose-red
    spume of smoke
        wafts from his mouth

To the East
    over the graveled Upano River
        & Amazonic hills
Gold & fuchsia
    cumulus tower
        & a rainbow grows

Before the clouds
    & the night again
        descend


V.
I fall asleep
    in the heat that
        suffocates the half moon


VI.
& awaken
    before the midnight hour
        to the pelting rain

***

Lorraine Caputo is a poet, translator and travel writer. Her works appear in over 180 journals on six continents; and 12 chapbooks of poetry – including Notes from the Patagonia (dancing girl press, 2017) and On Galápagos Shores (dancing girl press, 2019). She also authors travel narratives, articles and guidebooks. Caputo has done over 200 literary readings, from Alaska to the Patagonia. She travels through Latin America, listening to the voices of the pueblos and Earth.