Into our sight
Uno-grande, the big one came
Over eight foot tall,
three-hundred pounds,
Hungry as a greedy
hawk, a pale hound!
He came one day—
I first saw him at eight years old
He was old, not
strong shouldered,
Joyfully laboring to
steal our charqui—
Hooked onto our
clothesline outside
Salted and dried,
being prepared for winter storage!
“Never fear,” papa
said, “we shall wait for him
Catch him,” papa
looked dark and fierce.
Back then, about
1928, we lived outside Trujillo
Nearby, was the
wooded countryside…
Where Uno-grande ran
blithely to, with our charqui!
His great blue eyes
were brimmed
With wild beauty, and
calmness, he was harmless!
Tumbled like a clown,
when he ran (escaped)
But higher than our
house I think…
It was here papa and
the neighbors caught him
He had chosen our
loft to steal from
Hungry as a greedy
hawk, a pale hound!
Old and harmless as a
field mouse!…
There he stood, like
s ship on a reef
There was nothing to
do, the old giant had lost
Most of his strength,
age makes a man weak;
There was no violence
in him…
He was in fact
drowning with exhausted flesh
His laboring days had
long past!
I don’t know how he
met death, perhaps I
Dreamed it, that he
died happy and well…
But Papa and Ma, and
the neighbors too
All left food out for
him to eat, from that day on,
He surely ate well.
And he too: hunched and
Full of happy fury,
would leave a deer, or corn
Even a few
times—chickens, at our door!
No: 3340 (5-5-2012)
Inspired by Manuel Valera, who during a Saturday
afternoon dinner at the author’s home, while sitting around talking with
several guests, and the subject being giants, he told the author of his
grandmother’s experience, back in the late 1920s…and thus, came the “Ode, to
the Gentile Giant of Trujillo.”
