El Poema de lo Reverso

In which everything goes backwards in time and motion Palm trees shrink back into the ground Mangos become seeds and reappear in the eyes of Indian women The years go back cement becomes wood Panama hats are seen upon skeletons walking the plazas Of once again wooden benches The past starts to happen again I see Columbus’s three boats going backwards on the sea Getting smaller Crossing the Atlantic back to the ports of Spain    Cadiz    Dos Palos    Huelva Where the sailors disembark and go back to their towns To their homes They become adolescents again become children                infants they re-enter the wombs of their mothers till they become glances Clutching a pound of bread through a busy plaza that becomes the taste of the sound of church bells in reverberation.