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Rich Furman

Nicaragua Libre

          early '90's



Remember sleeping on a wooden plank
they called a bed
each morning stiffer than death

my days in Nicaragua Libre
wandering the countryside
more hope than I ever dared have
more dreams than ever allowed

And it was good, quiet enough
to hear my heart
being just past twenty alone
sad but so alive so desperate
to find something real.

Holding other's triumphs so close
that I forgot they were not mine
signing songs I barely understood

borrowing heroes for the heat
the blistering swollen head
walking miles under revolution's sky
in truck rumbles on potholed roads
solders passing me as I marched from
town to town they waved
sang danced shouted triumphs

they seemed so much
younger, or maybe older
than I.

And at night when the parrots sang
teasing me with olive goddesses
igniting my world aflame
it seemed eternal
time stood still

for us to laugh
in the face of never
to cry from merely
looking into the wind.




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