Hospital da Condesa, Camino de Santiago
by Vicky Brown Varela


​​Here is where pilgrims / were robbed in the Middle Ages / if there’s anything /
you can rob from a pilgrim / that isn’t faith / and here is where we finger / a jar
of olives curbside / like we’re only kids / gulping through whatever we’re given /
Pull-tab cans of black beans / Makeshift quesadillas on a clothing iron / Ridged
avocados we never let rot / because even then / we counted quarters / slices of
bread for our next feast / hours of sleep / that even now we lack / from one
Galician hamlet to the next / And I hesitate to say that last night / bunk rocking
when I moved / unhinged / my fever dreams / about you echoed louder / each
time we awoke / to wind smacking the albergue doors / to a trail of bumps /
from neck to chin / some unidentified itch / In this one we’re Goya’s witches /
in silk robes / no garlanded goat between us / but something we crave instead /
because I know our walk won’t last forever / and our Colombian boys / trips
to high altitudes / Alaskan sun warming the tips of our fingers / are excuses
to keep each other longer / And those other witches groping the crows that glide /
in the shape of a crescent moon / are those we’ll resurrect / from the procession
of withered roses / crusted bugs and glass bottles on our windowsill / since
there’s nothing more we can offer up / And here is where the pilgrims came /
on the verge between this cliff / and the end and / you know I’ve never
been any good / at keeping something alive / so we sit for now in this feral / silence
and count each blackberry and broom / something we can devote / a life to
​
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Vicky Brown Varela attends American University in Washington, D.C. in the School of International Service. Half-Costa Rican and born in the sandhills of South Carolina, she splits her time between the two. Her writing can be found in The Interlochen Review and Litmus and has been recognized nationally in the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards with a National Gold Medal for her Writing Portfolio. You can currently find her writing and farming in the Middle East. 

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Hospital da Condesa, Camino de Santiago by Vicky Brown Varela
​​June 2018