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My heart has an Embassy

for Ecuador where I will seek

asylum. Earthquakes

and aftershocks undermine

my hope and my means to work

and the Americans

have wormed into my psyche

with their black knack at fear.

My heart has an Embassy

for Ecuador as rare in air

and sumptuous as the Andes,

as clear as the Equator. There

will be in it waterfalls

and jungles like salvation.

There will be friends

whom I owe nothing, no

famed bail, no knotty

knowing sexualities. My heart

has an Embassy for Ecuador

where there will be no secrets

and the truth falls down like water

from giant granites of despair.

My heart has an Embassy

Jennifer Maiden

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