JUAN

Life has its moments of wonder

    and wondering.

These are the pastries

I’m learning to cook in the kitchen,

a kingdom of whispering girls:

    little spiders of ripe fried banana

    round sunsets of sliced oranges and sweet potato

    sticky mountains of coconut and caramel

    and best of all, strange creamy desserts

    from distant lands

    foreign foods with strange names like “Napoleon”

    names that make me want to read or travel

    words that make me long for a chance

    to learn

The kitchen girls whisper about crocodiles

    and water trolls

    sharks, mermaids

    caves

    forests with paths that glow

    paths of moonlight

    showing runaway slaves

    where to run

Later, when part of the sky is rainy

    and part is sunny

    the kitchen girls say that the devil

    is beating his wife

    but who would marry the devil anyway?

    No, that one must not be true.

    You have to watch out

    for other people’s whisperings

    so many of them turn out to be

    tall tales

    in other words

    lies.