nicaragua

breakfast woodsmoke on the breeze

on the cliff the u.s. embassy

frowns out over managua like dracula's tower

the kid who guards fonseca's tomb

cradles a beat-up submachine gun

at age fifteen he's a veteran of four years of war

proud to pay his dues

he knows who turns the screws

baby face and old man's eyes

blue lagoon and flowering trees

bullet-packed masaya streets

full of the ghosts of the heroes of monimbo

women of the town laundry

work and gossip and laugh at me

they don't believe i'll ever send them the pictures i took

for every scar on a wall

there's a hole in someone's heart

where a loved one's memory lives

in the flash of this moment

you're the best of what we are

don't let them stop you now

nicaragua

sandino in his tom mix hat

gazes from billboards and coins

sandino vive en la lucha por la paz"