Alabanza: In Praise of Local 100

    and a tattoo¹ on his shoulder that said Oye，

    a blue-eyed Puerto Rican with people from Fajardo，

    the harbor of pirates centuries ago.

    Praise the lighthouse in Fajardo， candle

    glimmering² white to worship the dark saint of the sea.

    Alabanza. Praise the cook's yellow Pirates cap

    worn in the name of Roberto Clemente， his plane

    that flamed into the ocean loaded with cans for Nicaragua，

    for all the mouths chewing the ash of earthquakes.

    Alabanza. Praise the kitchen radio， dial clicked

    even before the dial on the oven， so that music and Spanish

    rose before bread. Praise the bread. Alabanza.

    Praise Manhattan from a hundred and seven flights up，

    like Atlantis glimpsed through the windows of an ancient aquarium³.

    Praise the great windows where immigrants from the kitchen

    could squint⁴ and almost see their world， hear the chant of nations：

    Ecuador， México， Republica Dominicana，

    Haiti， Yemen， Ghana， Bangladesh.

    Alabanza. Praise the kitchen in the morning，

    where the gas burned blue on every stove

    and exhaust fans fired their diminutive⁵ propellers⁶，

    hands cracked eggs with quick thumbs

    or sliced open cartons to build an altar of cans.

    Alabanza. Praise the busboy's music， the chime-chime

    of his dishes and silverware in the tub.

    Alabanza. Praise the dish-dog， the dishwasher

    who worked that morning because another dishwasher

    could not stop coughing， or because he needed overtime⁷

    to pile the sacks of rice and beans for a family

    floating away on some Caribbean island plagued by frogs.

    Alabanza. Praise the waitress who heard the radio in the kitchen

    and sang to herself about a man gone. Alabanza.

    After the thunder wilder than thunder，

    after the booming ice storm of glass from the great windows，

    after the radio stopped singing like a tree full of terrified frogs，

    after night burst the dam of day and flooded the kitchen，

    for a time the stoves glowed in darkness like the lighthouse in Fajardo，

    like a cook's soul. Soul I say， even if the dead cannot tell us

    about the bristles⁸ of God's beard because God has no face，

    soul I say， to name the smoke-beings flung in constellations⁹

    across the night sky of this city and cities to come.

    Alabanza I say， even if God has no face.

    Alabanza. When the war began， from Manhattan to Kabul

    two constellations of smoke rose and drifted to each other，

    mingling¹⁰ in icy air， and one said with an Afghan tongue：

    Teach me to dance. We have no music here.

    And the other said with a Spanish tongue：

    I will teach you. Music is all we have.