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Nicolás Guillén

I sit indoors on a hot day reminiscing on poems of long ago. I see Nicolás young and spry killing a snake as he recites Sensemayá de la culebra. Here are some of the verses that I remember with a tropical cloud of nostalgia in my non-glass eyes:

Sensemayá
Canto para matar a una culebra.

¡Mayombe—bombe—mayombé!
¡Mayombe—bombe—mayombé!
¡Mayombe—bombe—mayombé!

La culebra tiene los ojos de vidrio;
la culebra viene y se enreda en un palo;
con sus ojos de vidrio, en un palo,
con sus ojos de vidrio.

By ameliadiazettinger

Amelia Díaz Ettinger was born in Mexico but was raised with her paternal family in Puerto Rico, where she grew up as a single child in a large, male-dominated, family. At nineteen she ran away to Washington State, to pursue a Master’s of Science in Biology and to liberate herself from the hermetic hold the island, and her family had on her. Currently, she is finishing her first year in Eastern’s MFA program in creative writing. Her poetry and short stories have appeared in journals and anthologies. Her first collection of poetry was published in 2015 by RedBat Press, Speaking at a Time. Learning to Love a Western Sky will be available this fall from Airlie Press, and Fossils on a Red Flag will be available from Finishing Line Press next year.

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