apagón
BY IRÈNE MATHIEU
the moon an open sore;
a ship as heavy as a chandelier:
se fue la lúz en la Zona Colonial.
Santo Domingo is no stranger
to purple darkness rising
from sidewalks and sinking
to rest at the roofs of houses.
beyond its wingspan you can
see the lit world looming,
but under its feathers people sweat,
beat out stress with sex,
with beating,
with merengue,
with leaving.
the colmados with generators
are dim cigarette ends,
hot glows where the blocks bend
before alleys of tar and blisters,
before eventually the ocean’s lips.
when the lights go,
thoughts stretch out like shadows
and chandeliers become eyes;
the moon an open sore sweeps higher,
casting luminous blood
and I begin to feel
the trapping of the wings,
begin to understand the need to flee,
begin to wish that I could ride
a chandelier out to sea,
beyond where the water bends,
beyond the sky’s wrapped lips,
beyond sex,
beyond beating,
beyond merengue,
beyond leaving.
the moon an open sore;
a ship as heavy as a chandelier:
se fue la lúz en la Zona Colonial.
Santo Domingo is no stranger
to purple darkness rising
from sidewalks and sinking
to rest at the roofs of houses.
beyond its wingspan you can
see the lit world looming,
but under its feathers people sweat,
beat out stress with sex,
with beating,
with merengue,
with leaving.
the colmados with generators
are dim cigarette ends,
hot glows where the blocks bend
before alleys of tar and blisters,
before eventually the ocean’s lips.
when the lights go,
thoughts stretch out like shadows
and chandeliers become eyes;
the moon an open sore sweeps higher,
casting luminous blood
and I begin to feel
the trapping of the wings,
begin to understand the need to flee,
begin to wish that I could ride
a chandelier out to sea,
beyond where the water bends,
beyond the sky’s wrapped lips,
beyond sex,
beyond beating,
beyond merengue,
beyond leaving.
IRÈNE MATHIEU is a freelance writer, photographer, (non-freelance) medical student, painter, and musician. She graduated from the College of William & Mary in 2009 and after spending a year doing Fulbright research in the Dominican Republic, she began medical school at Vanderbilt University. Her poetry and photographs have appeared in numerous publications, including 34th Parallel, Magnapoets, Damselfly Press, The Meadowland Review, and Hinchas de Poesía. One of her poems was a semifinalist in Jane’s Stories Press Foundations 2010 contest. She aspires to be a global health justice advocate, primary care physician, international policy-maker, author, and photographer.