I never know when this will happen. I sat on my couch and had on a Peruvian music playlist via the magic of Alexa and it took me back to my times in Peru. When I was in my self-imposed exile during the Reagan years and simultaneously on my sentimental mission to find a wife.
And this draft came out…

Eva Ayllón
The passionate growl and call of Eva Ayllón
The fervent guitar and the insistent thump of a primitive cajón
on this festejo
Este ritmo de negros
Este ritmo sabroso compelling me to dance
Takes me straight back across decades
to those mornings in San Borja, Lima, Perú
With the radio playing something native
folklórico
“From the soul of the people” they would say
accurately enough
So alive and perfect for setting the scene
and the mood
Looking off in the distance from a roof
to which I was a guest and a tenant
in a form of friendly exile
And fine with the arrangement
where my clothes would be slow to dry
in the daily mist
where I would return later for the siesta
a slow it down tradition I had grown to cherish
Alone on this roof
Where I would wonder
what Peruvian woman would ever have me
and where would we end up
Would she share this humble room this bed
Look out from this vantage point with me
And would she coo this earthy serenade like this
to awaken me
would we then have hot tea and fresh bread
Like we were king and queen of the world
and of the rest of our lives
quietly devising our own little mix of customs
but keeping forever the language of the heart
of this song and others.

10.2.20