{"id":265,"date":"2009-12-23T10:46:52","date_gmt":"2009-12-23T18:46:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/onelife\/?p=265"},"modified":"2009-12-23T10:46:52","modified_gmt":"2009-12-23T18:46:52","slug":"its-mary-i-see","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/?p=265","title":{"rendered":"It’s Mary I See"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Season’s Greetings friends from Heather, Josef and Lucas.<\/em><\/p>\n

FIRST COMES MARY<\/p>\n

Enchanted morning swim, matrix of turquoise
\nlagoon. Silver palometas, yellow damselfish
\ncaress my legs. Casa Ocio walls whitewashed
\nin cactus milk. Coconuts on the lawn.
\nPalm fronds bowing, rippling like sea anemones.
\nHeavy mahogany Hemingway digs.
\nGecko chirps from behind a gilt frame.
\nCool terrazzo marble pulls sand from toes.
\nDouble rain showerhead. Full throttle bottle bar
\nunder a palapa. I ponder the power
\nof local masonry to withstand hurricanes,
\nwhy it seems odd to name them after men.<\/p>\n

Who are you going to meet at a resort?
\nMail carriers from St. Catharines. Chiropractors
\nfrom Winnipeg. Programmed amusements for fraught
\ntourists wary of beggars. Cockatiels. Street vendors.
\nThey recoil at pulque, mescal, even tequila,
\nunless it’s frozen, goes down like a Slurpee.
\nThey tap into barrels of Corona or deposit derri\u00e8res
\nunder cabanas to read the latest Grisham.<\/p>\n

Beneath an arbor of pink bougainvillea
\nsit my dubious nephew, delicate girlfriend,
\ndoubts sinking slowly into the deep
\npurple cushions. We are going to town. To Playa.
\nSoft brown doves adorn neon.
\nTurtles bask on green tile mosaic. Red house
\nhosts a party tableau of orange Fanta, blue corn
\nflowers, flags of paper lace, chocolate pan de huevos.
\nWe smell agave, chili, vanilla, coriander and anise,
\nhear mariachis blaze a mighty La Bamba. Gobble
\npumpkin tamales, snow-white beach cooling our heels.
\nMongrels expire at the feet of professional urchins
\nsoliciting pesos. I will not cry, pick a white handkerchief
\nfestooned with poinsettias embroidered by his mother.
\nNo, I can’t buy them all.<\/em> Though downcast he will not cry.
\nOur Lady of Guadalupe provides. Protects.<\/p>\n

Christmastime but it’s Mary I see. Everywhere. To the faithful
\nthe forever virgin manifests in reefs, rays and schools
\nof gobies and fairy basslet. In the crystalline water
\nof a cenote near Merida. In the mynah’s cry.
\nThey live in Mother Mary’s shadow, warm as her embrace.
\nQueen of the Americas imperial as the iguana
\ngnawing hibiscus, sunning atop Tulum’s serpentine stairways.
\nShe is wing carved into rock, three pelicans soaring above.<\/p>\n

Even Mary, standing on the moon, presiding over the jungle
\nin a cloak of stars, could not stop the calendar,
\nmarauding anthropologists or games to the death.
\nOn every altar she towers over the crucifix, candles,
\niron crosses, golden grapes. She is under their skin,
\nher miraculous portrait inked onto their muscles.
\nHammered in copper, in tin. On murals.
\nSanta Maria assures and comforts all
\nher Mexican children. Heals. Entirely and ever
\nVirgin Mary is the horizon, sea and sky colliding
\nin azure, cobalt blues. Sacred to all. Taxi drivers.
\nMarimba players. Deejays and charros. She waves
\nfrom the cruise ships, watches over fire dancing,
\nblesses the portrait of two young lovers lost
\nin a car crash. Her people feel the harbour of her arms
\naround them. Her mercy. Infinite. Close.
\nFirst comes Mary. Holy Mary. Mother of God.<\/p>\n

-from “Three Blocks West of Wonderland”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Season’s Greetings friends from Heather, Josef and Lucas. FIRST COMES MARY Enchanted morning swim, matrix of turquoise lagoon. Silver palometas, yellow damselfish caress my legs. Casa Ocio walls whitewashed in cactus milk. Coconuts on the lawn. Palm fronds bowing, rippling like sea anemones. Heavy mahogany Hemingway digs. Gecko chirps from behind a gilt frame. Cool […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[149,152,200,324],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}