Returned

Returned
To an unfamiliar place
With sniffing dogs and cripples,
Coiffed, bodacious girls
And traffic like a dentist’s drill.

Bwah—noss dee-ahs, otra vez,
My heart simpler but relations more complex,
Mi novia ahora es mi amiga –
We smolder with ambiguous fire.

I arrived alone,
Driven by a careful man
Towards glinting concrete and barrios;
He questioned Clinton and Obama’s struggle –
Who will win?
His president no president at all
Un dictador, he said.

Now
Raw hot sun
On crowded walkways and debris,
The streets like waning aisles –
A plastic table
In an empty foot court
Refuge.