Looking for River Turtles in Ecuador
Travel can be restorative. But in this time of COVID pandemic our opportunities to travel are curtailed. So, I give to you my original poem on the subject of searching for joy.
Looking for River Turtles in Ecuador
The rainforest was lush and deeply green where we walked beneath giant kapok trees filled with splendid orchids hanging like libertines among the branches. It was nature being wild and free in a place where the Howler monkeys followed no rules for quietude as they moved unseen to shake the canopy above us and howl in cacophonous roars so loud that we pressed our hands to our ears.
We traveled for hours into the upland forest moving away from the sultry coast where we crossed over an oxbow loop of shallow water. There at the Yasuni River, our joyful fatigue made you cry.
I held you gently and kissed the sharp liquid of your tears until you sighed and pulled me closer, pressing your cheek into my palm as I placed my thumb lightly against the trembling of your soft plum lips.
Do you remember that I whispered gently, “We have come so far”?
That day remains so vivid in my memory — even the improbable truth of white butterflies appearing — their wings tinged with orange — rising by threes and fours from the river’s dark pool to hover carefree around…