THE PROCESSION OF LA IGLESIA DE LA ROSARIO

No way of doing justice to what the eyes could see.
Men in silver, pipe-smoking masks, dressed as wedding
Cakes. Formation dancing women wearing lime green
Skirts and brown bowlers; men in suits and tie, tubas
Balanced in the palms of their hands. Long-coated
Dudes in shades with snare drums. Crazy Inca kids, bells
On their legs and puma furs, flying like condors,
Landing belly up on the dirt, immune to pain.
Inscrutable features coated in feathers and smiles,
Dancing in their streets, tripping the light fantastic.

When the procession ends, the stalls of Illampu
Remove their wares. Benches and lightbulbs are rigged up
So a hundred makeshift bars can be born. Music
Competes with music til dawn, when the drunken
Devotees still stagger through the streets, mopping up
The dregs of chicha, cerveza, whisky and wine.


on lake titicaca 3.10.04