excerpt
…of skull, which gleamed in the firelight. I put the gourd down right
after the first man stopped eating. This was the time they used yopo,
ashes that made them behave oddly and see things that weren’t
there.
I was happy to see them inhaling those ashes and smoking, falling
into a stupor that only they understood. I disappeared into the
darkness when they had forgotten about me and barely made it to
the stream before falling on all fours and spewing my guts out.
I was rinsing my mouth to get rid of the greasy taste of the
monkey when a hand came to rest on my shoulder. Startled, I turned
to find Apacuana outlined against the dark blue, starry sky.
She didn’t speak, just knelt beside me and took my face in her
hands, caressing the shaven skin. I could see her eyes taking in every
detail. I wanted to pull away, to say something, but couldn’t. I was
like an animal suddenly blinded by fire that doesn’t flee from the
arrow.
She was the fire and her lips the arrows that pierced my heart
when she kissed me. I had never felt like that. My heart nearly burst,
and something below my cord jolted into life as a maddening
throbbing took hold of me. She was shivering, too, and I don’t know
how we came to be lying on the river’s edge surrounded by reeds.
Her skin smelled of plantain, of ashes, of fire, of freedom. She
knew what she was doing when she touched me, sending me into a
paroxysm of desire. I don’t know how my hands came to be upon
her breasts. Her legs were opening, placing me between them. There
was a nagging voice in my head telling me: Who’s going to know? Just
once. Just to know how it is.
Hellenic Canadian Literature 