Los volcánes de Nicaragua By Adela Najarro

– for my father

Cosigüina: North

North only North—no trails, steep slopes.
Stand at the rim of the crater,
pour your mother out:

The mother who left you in Managua.
The mother who brought you to the States.

San Cristóbal Volcano: Travel

St. Christopher is not a saint
but a martyr      protects nevertheless.

Planes and visas take so many North,
then REVOLUCIÓN:
trucks lined with palm fronds,
everyone celebrates.

Cerro Negro Volcano: Hills

Except you.     You liked Somoza, the dictator,
the special contracts, the ability
to sit in a hotel,
order a steak with red wine reduction,
mushrooms in a cream sauce.

Did you sand board down the slope
of an active volcano?

El Hoyo: Emptiness

If your mother leaves
and doesn’t come back,
are you left on the edge of a volcano?
Will you keep jumping into lava
to burn away the loss?
Will love feel like heat
for the rest of your life?

Momotombo: Energy

Managua with its geothermal plant
at the base of the volcano
is like a woman undressing
for the first time.

So many women.
So many times.

Apoyeque: Sulfur

Volcanoes in a chain
are like generations

one after the other
that keep doing
the same thing:

combustion, volatile gases,
the tremble of tectonic plates crashing.

Except, I mean bodies
with other bodies.

Except, I mean feeding
the body with other bodies

until then there is

only ash.