Poem by Argos MacCallum

Almuerzo

in the summer heat
halted by an insolent red stoplight
I see a man sitting on his haunches
on the opposite curb
of the t-bone intersection
compact dark and round-eyed

cradling a lunch on his knees
as solemn spoon rises to solemn lips
solemn as a state dinner
the curb a timeless throne
within an anthem of silence
an island in the roar of the world

a feast of rice and beans no doubt 
fit for both fisherman and pharoah
spoon rises and dives like a bird of prey
the cardboard bowl the living earth
the serpent of hunger is driven away
and won’t be back again today

Argos MacCallum is an actor, director, carpenter, theatre manager, and co-founder of Teatro Paraguas, a bilingual theatre company promoting Latinx plays in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  He has lived the past 50 years in his homestead in the shadow of the Cerrillos Hills off the Turquoise Trail outside Santa Fe, where the coyotes party all night long.

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