The Patio
It's tucked behind four buildings,
right in front of the only window in my room.
Only the midday sun ever reaches it.
I’ve only ever seen one old woman
step into its perpetual gloom—
a gloom that carries the ugliness of dead things.
The woman cleans up the trash,
picks up broken glass from smashed bottles,
clears away dead leaves,
and tickles the dirt with a rake.
The earth rolls over
and almost yawns.
Slowly, the earth wakes up in the spring.
The rain just makes it turn over and wrap itself in weeds.
Then, early one Sunday morning, the woman drives a shovel into it,
and the earth finally wakes up and yawns.
The noise wakes the birds and gets them singing.
Even the sun peeks out to take a look.
The ground has stretch marks on its belly and dark circles under its eyes.
You could tell it was rich, generous, accommodating, and dark.
The woman grabs a handful of soil,
raises her hand, and shows it to me.
Then she yells up in Spanish:
"Good soil!
When I was a girl, we used to plant potatoes here.
That was before the war."
She uncorks a bottle with her teeth,
takes a long swig,
flashes the bottle at me, and shouts:
"Can you help me plant?"
And I was so clueless that I yelled back:
"I'm sorry, I don't speak Spanish."
I was so busy trying to figure out
what my first novel was going to be about.
I never did figure it out.
Even though I closed the window
and drew the curtains.
Fifteen days later—
the day I was heading back to Venezuela—
I finally dared to open the curtains.
There were little birds and butterflies
fluttering around a woman
watering the earth.
And the soil drank it up like a thirsty alcoholic woman
I left the window open.
Li Tao Po
VABM Oct/29/2026
https://riistas2.wordpress.com/2026/10/30/the-patio/
https://riistas2.wordpress.com/2026/10/29/el-patio/
https://riistas2.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/thepatio.pdf
https://riistas2.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/elpatio.pdf
mp3
https://tinyurl.com/The-PatioVABM
Desde la rocola riista
https://tinyurl.com/rocola-riista
Play list in YouTube Music
https://tinyurl.com/riistas-YouTube-music
In YouTube
https://youtu.be/iUjA_9Uv6eM?feature=shared
Riista channel
https://www.youtube.com/@riistas
Suscripción
https://youtube.com/@riistas/community?si=YbU8Mkoq_bzG6wo2
Album Animal Protection
https://riistas2.wordpress.com/2026/10/15/animal-protection-2/
https://riistas2.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/albumanimalprotection.pdf
Album Some songs for the road
https://riistas2.wordpress.com/2026/10/01/some-songs-for-the-road/
https://riistas2.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/somesongsfortheroad-1.pdf
Album Ten songs of Industrial Rock
https://riistas2.wordpress.com/2026/07/31/ten-songs-of-industrial-rock/
https://riistas2.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/tensongsofindustrialrock-1.pdf
Album Canciones de amor
https://riistas2.wordpress.com/2026/08/11/canciones-de-amor/
https://riistas2.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/cancionesdeamorvf.pdf
En Blogspot
https://victor-bueno.blogspot.com/2026/10/el-patio.html
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