breakfast woodsmoke on the breeze --

on the cliff the u.s. Embassy

frowns out over managua like dracula's tower.

the kid who guards fonseca's tomb

cradles a beat-up submachine gun --

at age fifteen he's a veteran of four years of war

proud to pay his dues

he knows who turns the screws

baby face and old man's eyes



blue lagoon and flowering trees --

bullet-packed masaya streets

full of the ghosts of the heroes of monimbo

women of the town laundry

work and gossip and laugh at me --

they don't believe i'll ever send them the pictures i took.

for every scar on a wall

there's a hole in someone's heart

where a loved one's memory lives



in the flash of this moment

you're the best of what we are --

don't let them stop you now

nicaragua



sandino in his tom mix hat

gazes from billboards and coins

"sandino vive en la lucha por la paz"

sandino of the shining dream

who stood up to the u.s. marines --

now washington panics at u2 shots of "cuban-style" latrines



in the flash of this moment

you're the best of what we are --

don't let them stop you now

nicaragua



(MANAGUA FEBRUARY 1983)