Little Piece of the Sky

Highlands of Paraguay,
   Butterfly garden, giant wings of blue and black.
Deep orange patterns painted on mushrooms.
   Pearled weavings of spider webs stranded
Across green grass and red mud paths.
   Wind whispering in palms,
Emerald parrots screeching above the distant
   Rumble of trucks.  I look down, down,
Down to the distant valley.  Smoke from
   Clearing forests for soybeans and cattle,
Patches of yellow fields fallow, foreign pines
   And eucalyptus plantations.  Here up, up, up,
above, I rest in
                 A little piece of the sky.

Elena Huegel
July 2015