Author: KCF

  • The City and the Flower

    The City and the Flower

    I arrived in Buenos Aires 32 years ago this week. Then, as now, it was the run up to Spring. The cool air of Winter was cut by warm shoots of light that made walking her streets like pushing through the folds of night and day. Flower sellers hawked little bouquets of waxy-petaled jasmine from…

  • Refuge in Other People’s Homes

    Refuge in Other People’s Homes

    On a street in the neighborhood the other day, a car appeared without wheels, without engine, without windows, without seats. A mere car carcass. Someone had bothered to cart it there but its utility – beyond wishful thinking – was hard to see. You had to be really desperate or really imaginative to find beauty…

  • Flying on a Broken Wing

    Flying on a Broken Wing

    She was a beautiful child born the day the river Shannon overflowed A body of water that could not be contained was her name Her beauty like Venus was more poignant for a missing wing […]

  • Skipping Beneath the Night Sky

    Skipping Beneath the Night Sky

    She skips down the alley willy-nilly, dodging potholes and puddles. Her footsteps echo between the concrete walls and rolling metal security shutters. In the circle of light cast by a streetlamp, she leaps suddenly into the air and twirls, arms joyously flailing. Her chin is raised up and she smiles to the Gods who are…

  • Dos Negronis at La Biela

    Dos Negronis at La Biela

    I don’t usually leave bars dancing in the streets. But then again, these are not usual times […]

  • Nurture

    Nurture

    I consider my troubled relationship with plants a blemish on my character. To me, it is a tell-tale sign that something is askew, that I am too focused on something beyond me. Like meditation, plant husbandry eludes me […]

  • The Meaning of Nothing

    The Meaning of Nothing

    Let me read it to you: I am walking down a Buenos Aires sidewalk in scuffed shoes that I had intended to polish but never got around to. A whiff of diesel exhaust from an idling truck yanks me from this place and thrusts me into another where I am shivering outside a truckstop looking…

  • Resurrection

    Resurrection

    listen: I was born luminous And remember the light That burned within But one day that light Was snuffed out Left to smoulder Now there are so many things I would like to believe But can’t It is in the darkness Sadly, that I find The lasting truths Do not be afraid of the dark…

  • As I Am

    As I Am

    I crave to be taken as I am Unvarnished Raw Contradictory Exploratory Unfinished I was brought into this world Raw and bathed in bodily fluids God knows I have chased the bodily fluids Merging mine with theirs Coveting the spontaneous combustion Of chest against chest Of lips against lips […]