Crossing – Lorraine Caputo

Within the nest of
high hills green and golden, cloud-
shadowed, rests Cerro
Negro, black rivers
frozen down its barren slopes.

In a near field, a
thin-limbed girl, skin bronzed by
strong sun, watches her goats.

Men gather dried stalks –
conical stacks, reflections
of solitary
Momotombo Volcano
on the southern horizon.

About the contributor: Lorraine Caputo is a documentary poet, translator and travel writer. Her works appear in over 150 journals in Canada, the US, Latin America, Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa; 12 chapbooks of poetry – including Caribbean Nights (Red Bird Chapbooks, 2014), Notes from the Patagonia (dancing girl press, 2017) and the upcoming On Galápagos Shores (dancing girl press, 2019); and 18 anthologies. In March 2011, the Parliamentary Poet Laureate of Canada chose her verse as poem of the month. Caputo has done over 200 literary readings, from Alaska to the Patagonia. She travels through Latin America, listening to the voices of the pueblos and Earth.