La Chureca

While at La Chureca birds are shooed away by children
a comet heads straight for Managua, Nicaragua

Cardenal’s name carved on its burning ice
just punishment says Tachito from the grave

for everything there is a season
a time to observe comets

and a time to receive comets
the old poet blinks

and then is blinded by the light
the children’s meal is interrupted at the dump

is there no justice in this world?
no, there is not, the non-poets shout

the lake has disappeared
the trees lie burnt like matchsticks

and a tiny pebble is all that’s left
of the Mayan comet.