弟

my brother is there.

he is in that country, far away from here, that's sending radioactive particles through the air across the pacific, to reach me and to reach us west coast toasters, here, though finally "harmless" to our lungs upon arriving.

but he isn't hurt. i suppose his lungs are experiencing some new radioactive friends. that’s all.

but when the quake shook over there, and we were safe in our warm california climates and at six-thirty in the morning my dad calls, and all we know is japan is experiencing tumultuous shakes and tsunami and now the sky is on fire as we watch the American television, that hasn't bothered to specify what parts of Japan have been affected and what areas are still safe.

we just know the country has been threatened, worse than we can think because it isn't a normal day anymore. my parents watch it and all we see is images of houses swimming in waves, crumbling while buildings burn. and the people are missing, they are lost.

but he should be ok. he should be ok.

they are fine, where he is, in sapporo, 365 miles away its confirmed hours later, but the news keeps talking. we are thankful, but it is difficult, when bodies, thousands of bodies are washing up, they are washing up. the waters took them, and now sea is retching and is sick from the dead, so leaving corpses on the beach as tokens of their madness.

and little sapporo sits untouched. it is untouched.

30 Q

i have never seen a starbucks within the confines of guaté,
though it may exist. in Antigua, starbucks does not.

cramped into a starbucked corner of laptops and middle aged adults trying to seek refuge in a place that is not home but in which they can indulge in the niceties of coffee scent and life plugged into the virtual. tap tap tap, the keys they press clack against the grind of coffee machines. blending GUATEMALA ANTIGUA STARBUCKS COFFEE.

nobody else here knows where Guatemala is really. its just a nice little accent to the décor of the coffee house on the wall pictured as a pink flowery branch.

this is guate.

$3. 75 in a nice plastic cup that says, “our new cup.
15% less plastic than before. 40% fewer carbon emissions to make it.
visit starbucks.com/csr.”
you can feel good about drinking your four dollar frap. you are saving the environment by drinking out of this cup.
you can feel good,
about starbucks.

because it feels good. of course it does, it’s chocolate. it’s coffee from the volcanic soils of the high regions of the Guatemalan alps. where the city wakes bright and early at 6AM and as the sun awakes so do the people.

these short, colorful people, darkened by sun and soil and by age,
crushed by pounds of the bean upon small, strengthful backs of women.
these mounds they carry on the tops of their heads. how far? as far as they need.
any load they can carry for family or company.

both men and women work their fields if they are lucky, their own plantations. the landscape is more beautiful than your city life in your city apartment. sex and the city has got nothin on this place. sex in Guatemala is surely much better too.

here coffee has no meaning outside of feeding taste.
for Antigua. it means life.
life less entertained unless entertaining the gringo tourists for a buck.

starbucks. 3.75 for a frap. 30 Quetzal.