Alicia

One day outside my bungalow we found a little kitten. We fed it and we both took turns playing with it. After much deliberation we named her Bobby Magee. My cat Gandalf who I had for 19 years was also a calico cat. I wish there was a way I could have brought Bobby Magee home to Alaska.

My first day in San Jose, Costa Rica I bought a rose for no reason from a street vendor. I was staying at the Tica Linda. It is a dumpy place very popular with back packers from around the world.

It was there met Alica. The moment I met her I gave her the rose and told her, "I never knew such beauty could exist in the world." I made her laugh and I took a blurry photo to mark the occasion.

Venus of Jaco Beach, Costa Rica.


Dinner in China Town in San Francisco.

Alicia strolled in Jaco wet with rain.
The sky was blue over the beach.
The water was coffee brown under the bridge.
And every sunset was golden on Alicia.
The other elements were green and rose and white.
Alicia smiles, bicycles pass she speaks Spanish like a song.
A girl stepped into the lawn to catch a mariposa.
The whole world, Costa Rica, America, Alabama
Was quiet around Alicia.
We looked at the sky, it was not forbidden.
Mouth, nose, eyes were open. There was no danger.
Alicia feared nothing. Not even spiders.
She waited for messages slow to arrive.
Alicia strolled in the garden, in the morning.
We had gardens; we had mornings in those days.

(I met Alicia during my first trip to Costa Rica in October 1996. With other trips to Costa Rica and San Francisco. Did I fall in love? Read the poem and draw your own conclusions. She has a beautiful son now and lives with her partner in the deep south. We still call and write to catch up with each other every so often)