LOOKING FOR DUENDE
My parents had a sprinkler
that sputtered water whenever
the tap was off, and mom surprised me
when she casually said
duende was watering the backyard again.
I heard duende as Lorca’s captured inspiration
in college. I asked how to translate it
into English, and my parents couldn’t,
settling on “the mischief of a goblin.”
Mom added that it’s like
the movie with small green Gremlins terrorizing
the Pennsylvania town
during Christmas.
When I left home,
sent out to find duende,
the muse gifted deep wells of dream,
podcasts about skinwalkers and tricksters
orchestrating mischief, winds singing
through deep woods
to echo like ocean waves.
I didn’t know I first encountered duende
in the Looney Tunes cartoon
where Bugs Bunny saves
the B-52 bomber from the small saboteur
and William Shatner's Twilight Zone plane ride,
watching monster dismantle
the engine before flying into the lightning
and leaving him in lunacy.
Duende coaxed me to pedal faster
on my childhood's rickety bike,
to follow shadows mistaken
for witches, to welcome deja vu
on mountain trails I’ve never hiked before.
I still search beyond Lorca’s execution
and mass grave
whenever I study full moon's grief.
I accept the medium’s summertime warning
that my dead father has become duende,
promising to meddle
until we safely make it
into the chilly months of
November and December.
ABOUT THE POET
Juan J. Morales
is the son of an Ecuadorian mother and Puerto Rican father.
He is the author of three poetry collections, including The Handyman’s Guide
to End Times, and his fourth collection, Dream of the Bird Tattoo, is forthcoming
from University of New Mexico Press. Morales is a CantoMundo Fellow, a
Macondo Fellow, the editor/publisher of Pilgrimage Press, and the associate dean
of the College of Humanities Arts & Social Sciences at Colorado State University
Pueblo.
He is the author of three poetry collections, including The Handyman’s Guide
to End Times, and his fourth collection, Dream of the Bird Tattoo, is forthcoming
from University of New Mexico Press. Morales is a CantoMundo Fellow, a
Macondo Fellow, the editor/publisher of Pilgrimage Press, and the associate dean
of the College of Humanities Arts & Social Sciences at Colorado State University
Pueblo.
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