A Culture’s Gifts
La Morena and her Dog
On a prancing afternoon
a silvery Elder
bends solemn over her notebook.
A firecracker goes off.
Cohetes they’re called,
where she lives.
Ten years earlier
she would have jumped,
at least flinched.
She would have called it
a problem, a hazard,
at least an annoyance.
Today she looks up
from the bench in the plaza
and laughs.
Exuberance, she calls it
now that she better understands
the country she has chosen.
She gazes at the emerald hills
visible from her perch
and gives thanks –
for the kindness, the beauty,
the generosity, the safety. Gifts
Mexico has poured out to her.
©Susa Silvermarie 2026
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