TOWER OF THE BELLS

That shameless clatter and clang
rough hewn metal knocking together,

Awaken!
Old San Juan Capistrano!
Impatient ritual slumber,
Dig Junipero! Frustrated, blood-knuckled piety
thrust into the red earth
from whence our sins,
ye old Spanish conquest,
have been resurrected.

To gorge Teofilo’s artistry
on darkening truths –
pressed under the settling weight
until each plundered flap
the winged springtime of swallows
drown out our greatest miseries
- no more.