All blushes exhausted hours before
the tiny fleet docked off Valparaiso.
The rounding had frayed affections, birthed hatreds,
brought a sister’s loyalty well to the fore.
Time now for a show of ferocious
and sacrificial love, while yet
the natives pittered sleep-befuddled
to the shore. Haven us, the cannon roared,
as knowledge slurred its reasonable price.
Pursued, and caught, and later, canonized. Cages
called their hunger down upon the plaza, the song-
birds battled with the drapes, and many went
away downhearted in memory. The public good
could only shout, its jarring new voice
rising to belfry, lost in the repeating line
of the red clay shingles.