I lived in an Elysium strewn with orchids, bougainvillea,

Hibiscus by the roadsides as if chucked by profligate gods;

Plumeria perfumed the breeze that bowed the palms

And set their fronds to click and clack like vegetal chimes.

Vanquished time; undying days put the calendar to rout,

Like starting a stint in solitary in the middle of the night —

Day in, day out and no mortal bearings, only the tides

Governed by an indifferent moon amidst a swoon of stars.

Camouflage concealed me from the eyes of other men

But could not hide me from myself.  I knew my name.

Or back in barracks in starched fatigues, spit-shined boots to mock the sun:

A gold bar on a collar gussies up a hired gun.

Gulches seething with guavas; valleys overrun by verdure

Sprung from red volcanic clay; paths littered with the corpses

Of rotting passion fruits; through this incomplete Paradise

I slither, like that famous snake so unjustly maligned

For bringing death where once there had been only life.