Freelance Dancer at the Plaza Bar in Veracruz

Dressed in gaiety, eyes ecstatic and face aflame
in sullied pants and the shine of black skin,
a sun bleached playera and sandals with torn straps,
you seek a brief escape from a melancholy heart.

Here in the festive plaza filled with movement and music
tempered by the sporadic round of church bells
on the far side of the fountain where the faithful sit
on stone benches amongst lovers and the homeless.

You dance alone, your hips and arms move,
twirling a red pañuela above your head.  Alone,
your body mimics the Latin beat and marimba groove,
as patrons sit sipping fermented spirits in sedentary peace.

You dance alone, half man, half ghost, between the band
and the end of the universe beyond the outdoor bar.

This is your uninvited chance to fit in
for a passing song on a makeshift stage
to tell the loved and self-assured that you are here;
your loneliness disguised in the sway of marimba and drums.

Do you hope that the band will play forever
dreadful of the empty night that will lurk
later in the dark street waiting to rob you once again?

The Caribbean melody nears it final refrain.                                                                                        As church bells remind the fearful                                                                                                            not to forget that hell is near,                                                                                                                you, the solitary dancer, lose yourself, even as a clown,
in the syncopated rhythm of the tropical night,                                                                              your pañuela whirls to celebrate a moment of mad freedom                                                          as the patrons of the bar applaud the band.

      -- C.S. Cholas                                                                                                                                                               Veracruz, Mexico, 18 June, 1995