The Ofi Press Magazine

Poem by Clara Jones (USA)

Published in The Ofi Press issue 49

Tropics In Dry Season

The Corobici moves toward Cañas, south

of Liberia, west of Arenal's rim round as a

monkey's eye, a monkey Buddha seated on

a scabrous limb of Andira blooming for bees

and hummingbirds green as cilantro in mango

cream coating crisp tilapia on a blue plate

borne to America by Juan Heraldo's ancestors

from Grenada whose African patron saint

blessed every Acacia in Accra where Englishwomen

sipped tea from Wedgwood cups while sons

played with children of slaves in courtyards

designed like Italian atriums, bocce balls no

bigger than bread plates arranged for lunch

in a white tent where Count Pietro blessed the

marriage of his favorite daughter who ran away

to the New World with a commoner who

bought five hectares and grew tomatoes

for the rest of his life while Cebus were sent to

Victoria for her amusement like Darwin was

amused by finches and Gray by mammals and

Fischer by numbers before Mattias Kopfner

renovated Axel Springer to sell “the art of fun”

at Fondazione Prada, feeling an obligation to

Milan and to Christopher Wool whose text paintings

sell for ten million dollars though de Kooning

painted with “doubt” before troops were sent to

Eritrea—every day warmer when wet season turns dry and

Tabebuia bloom in unison across deciduous landscapes.