This one's called "A Hairpin Turn above Reading, Jamaica."
If you live near mountains, you know what a hairpin turn looks
like, except that, in this case, you
must imagine a road approximately as
wide as a hairpin and poorly kept.
"A Hairpin Turn Above Reading, Jamaica."
"Here's where the fire truck fell, beached on its side,
off the road.
So when the fire fell into itself,
we came down the hill to watch the fire truck get saved.
Only the rich live this high, with a view of the bay.
And the rich will be with us forever,
though the pump at the base of the mountain burns out
and the Socialist party, in power, is sorry.
The rich buy truckloads of water and hire the poor
to drive them up.
Water will go uphill if money will go down.
Today, there's a goat in the bend, stolid and demure.
She'll move soon.
There's nothing to eat in the road.
A cow and two egrets tack into the shadow of a mango.
It's noon.
Above the bay, turkey buzzards sift the thermals.
At dawn, they perch and spread their wings
to dry like laundry.
My friends and I are the rich, though the house is rented.
We'll fall away, the goat will loll off the road,
the bad clutch in the van will slur, but we'll make it up.
And we do, heat-steeped, thoughtful, and sleepy."