Columbus

 

His thundering horses 
his river of gold
his liquid altar

you dare not speak

I understand 
those white sails in the Pacific 
were something 
he always dreamed of 

a thousand miles away

but I managed 
to limp home 
to light my child’s lamp 
before he went to sleep

---

Simon Anton Niño Diego Baena’s fourth chapbook, With Different Wars Raging, is forthcoming from Jacar Press. His work has appeared in Poetry Daily, The Bitter Oleander, Osiris, The Columbia Review, The Ocean State Review, Pembroke Magazine, Hawaiʻi Pacific Review, Louisiana Literature, The Cortland Review, and elsewhere. He has been nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize. He lives in the Philippines with his wife and child.