Poetry: “Luquillo Entre las Nubes” by Roxanne Cardona
“Do not be fooled / by this impenetrable face. / I am origin,” writes Roxanne Cardona in her poem, “Luquillo Entre las Nubes.” There is a timeless, ancient feel to these tercets, and Cardona manipulates her voice into the specific with vibrant detail and then suddenly swings into the otherworldly, historical, and mystical, expertly maneuvering around in this poetic space and drawing parallels between past, present, and future for vulnerable, precarious but still fiercely surviving indigenous bloodlines and traditions. There is grief in these stanzas, but also pride; a viewpoint which has persevered through all kinds of oppression and exploitation. Cardona invokes this history masterfully, but adds a lyrical, pensive stamp that makes it all her own.
LUQUILLO ENTRE LAS NUBES c. 1930 (LUQUILLO AMONG THE CLOUDS)
after painting by Juan A. Rosado (1891-1962)
after painting by Juan A. Rosado (1891-1962)
Among the Sierras of Luquillo, I live.
One of many tall mountain peaks.
Call me El Cacique.
I am the banded hornfels,
the mafic rocks, the basalt. The upset
stomach of limestone, the storm
of mica, the battle of each shale.
I keep the skeletons of insects,
inside me corpses procreate.
Call me First or whisper
indigenous. Native. I sing
for every soul in the blood-
stained dirt. Do not be fooled
by this impenetrable face.
I am origin. I cry streams,
leak rivers, sob waterfalls.
We begin again, this war
that never ends. Las Nubes entran
en un enjambre de polvo y gris.
(The clouds enter in a swarm
of dust and gray.)
A cumulus invasion, makes it hard
to breathe. I lift my peaks
into its nimbus, strike first.
The great sky serpent exhales
what is putrid inside its lungs.
Sometimes its war cry is so loud
like a hundred congas beating.
It is nothing but smokey air,
yet it shades my peaks. Some days
we are mirrors of each other.
I with planted feet, it a warm mist
that covers all with its charcoal being.
Roxanne Cardona
Roxanne Cardona was born in New York City of Puerto Rican heritage. She was a principal and educator in the South Bronx. She has been published in ONE ART: A Journal of Poetry, The Westchester Review, Connecticut River Review, Pine Hills Review, Mason Street, Commuter Lit, Ethel Zine, Constellations, Delmarva Review, San Antonio Review, Field Guide Poetry Magazine, Halcyon Days, Spy Community Media Inc. and elsewhere. Her first book of poetry, Caught in the Principal’s Lens, a finalist in the Wheelbarrow Books Poetry Competition 2023, will be forthcoming in late summer.
