NUNS, PARADISE ISLAND

NUNS  (outakes)

I imagine the presence of nuns
five centuries dead, habits
rustling like palm fronds
as they walk down these
corridors open to the sky.
In the courtyard, shadows collect
in pools on marble skin.
A colonist lonesome for France
shipped the 14th century cloister
to Paradise Island to remind himself
of the genteel heritage he's lost
in this savage land. In a nearby house,
someone begins to play the piano.
A gardener's hand dresses the soil.
The pitted marble column beneath my palm
has weathered under the tropical sun
like coral, like bone.

5/85


NUNS 

I imagine confused ghosts of French nuns 
five centuries dead, 
wandering down these misplaced corridors 
open to a Caribbean sky in the dead of winter.
Lonesome for France, a colonial settler
shipped the 14th century cloister
to Paradise Island to remind himself
of the genteel heritage he's lost
in this savage land.

Beneath the skin of the ocean, Caliban 
rattles in an eloquent rage because
in a nearby house, someone begins  
to play classical music on the piano
while a gardener's hand dresses the thin soil
ravaged by centuries of cotton and orange plantations.     
In the courtyard, shadows collect
in pools on marble statuary and coral. 
The pitted marble column beneath my palm  
has weathered under the tropical sun 
like coral, like bone.


date? 4/15/85 until I find the correct date. I went early to the Bahamas, the workshops began 4/28/85; so It probably was in
May.
Paradise Island, Bahamas. This becomes fodder for another poem, Photographing Ruins, Paradise Island

Nate Mackey writes it as 1985 too. What month?