Last night we arrived from the jungle.
We travelled a long distance to reach Lima.
We did not see the Intihuatana1 when we were in the Inca city.
We walked along the stone paths, one behind the other, watching and listening carefully.
Alberto speaks to me while he smokes tobacco.
I think, and I do not feel.
Little brother, what is it?
There is nothing left in my home to give you, sister.
There is nothing left.
I offered you large-grain corn and deep yellow wheat, bright as the sun.
In this land I have friends and lovers.
This is a land that trembles—above all, a land that feels.
What happened in this house, I can hardly remember,
and I am afraid of forgetting its rooms,
of leaving my footsteps behind in these magical mountains.
There is gold, oil, wealth, plastic trees,
and green buckets to vomit into.
Amorgos is a dream.
It is blue. It is red.
It is salt and sea.
It is also a land that trembles.
I want to know your land and breathe its scent,
but mine is ill, and tonight I must remain beside her
until the plague has passed
and carries death away from here.
When the sun returns,
I will sail toward you
and come to meet your waters.
1 Intihuatana is a sacred ritual stone in Peru associated with the Inca astronomical calendar. The word comes from Quechua and means "the place where the sun is tied."