The open-air band plays (La retreta)

To my dear friend Crystal Corman (who used to play saxophone in a band), as she flies across the Pacific on her way back to one of the many places she calls home. From my Dad’s book Elementary motherland (Patria elemental).

The open-air band plays (La retreta)

By the side of the afternoon the open-air band plays.

Profusion of joy and skill in the performers.

Admiring attention in the spectators.

The music completes the vocation for leisure,

introduction to dreaming

in the arduous summer nights.

River breezes in the pentagram

that Elías composed with his hand and soul,

he was the one with deep sorrows.

The grandeur of the fine music: Bach, Beethoven,

Mozart, Tshaikowsky. In the wandering night

clear magical voices of palm trees.

The dim light in the park, appropriate for love

in the warm caressing breeze. The persistent melodies

reach the bench in the shadows.

When it is quiet the time invites to sleep.

The music under the palm tree roofs

will take place another Sunday afternoon.