There is a home in Caracas where...

...the butter is as soft as the papaya
needs to be for the purposes of this house:

to keep fed, hearts—fed & warmed, minds
to be up to the day, which just needs

a little electricity & four hands,
maybe a little coffee to juice the cells

& to keep the sweep of too little time
at bay. Or maybe it's always just enough

time to peel the fruit & to get working,
but how to leave behind so many books

so many paintings, so many ancient
coins – the fruits & currency of the minds

that have surely been created & curated
here. May night-time always be as soft

as you need it be; may the birds & bugs
never swing too close to the windows

& sing their songs just in reach & just
as this one is sung – with the lyre in mind

& an Amen.

for Christiane & Miguel

Eric Elshtain is finishing his Ph.D in the University of Chicago's Committee on the History of Culture. His work can be found in journals such as McSweeney's, Skanky Possum, Notre Dame Review, Ploughshares, Denver Quarterly, Interim, Salt Hill, GutCult and others. His chapbook, The Cheaper the Crook, the Gaudier the Patter, appeared in 2004 from Transparent Tiger Press; another, Here In Premonition, will appear later this year from RubbaDucky Press.