First Kiss, First Poem

In Costa Rica, as in many other Hispanic cultures, the customary greeting (and goodbye) is a kiss on the cheek. It varies from country to country in terms of how many cheeks you kiss and what kind of noises you make, but in Costa Rica, it's just one on the left.

Although I've used this greeting both in the United States and now with Costa Ricans, this week was the first time I employed it with someone my own age and, more specifically, with a male. Coming from a culture where male 20-somethings wouldn't be caught dead kissing each other on the cheek, the sight is still a bit strange to me. In addition, kissing a girl on the cheek is an everyday occurrence, not an advance of any kind...

I didn't think much about the experience of this "first kiss" until I went to a poetry reading in San Jose on Tuesday night. Even though I didn't understand many of the poems being read, the atmosphere encouraged me to shuffle and rebirth the Costa Rican panorama lying dormant in my brain.

And so, I give you my first Costa Rican poem!



Beso

Tiny pebbles blow past my cheek,
the delicate friction
of a five o’clock shadow, lifted

like rough beaches on a wave.
Two maps meet—
a ten-second tutorial

on cultural topography.
My birthplace burns
in the equatorial sun,

while he shakes the dust
from his silver-buckle shoes
and walks away

toward home.