DC PLACES ISSUE Naomi Ayala RESTAURANTE SANTA ROSA a Vanessa Bustos En los últimos doce días el sol no ha pasado por los cristales de Santa Rosa y nadie se ríe como nos reíamos antes. La radiola está ensimismada, el pulpo frío en su escabeche. Las mazorcas de maíz viven en su ensueño de verano. Algunos hombres se dan cervezas solos y fuman y, pensando así como lo hacen, por ahora se ven tan puros de sentimiento. Alguien reniega el embarazo de una novia – como lo dejó sin chavos, hace ya ya mucho tiempo – arando días que guardan secretos. Y una mujer quiere cambiarse el nombre a murmullo, a ola, a viento. Las plantas plásticas se ríen del clorofilo, le tiran besitos al cielo encancaranublado. Tres encendedores se prenden de una vez cerca del salero a quien le pesan tantos granitos de arroz. Y cómo pasa la gente afuera tan lejos de aquí y tan cerca sin pensar en el cielo, quien queriendo cambiar de historia se acuesta a morir entre nosotros.   SANTA ROSA RESTAURANT for Vanessa Bustos In the last twelve days the sun has not come through the windowpanes of Santa Rosa and no one laughs the way we used to. The jukebox is engrossed in her thoughts, the octopus cold in its marinade. The cobs of corn live in their daydream of summer. Some men drink their beers alone and smoke and, thinking the way they are now, for now seem so pure of heart. Someone renounces a lover’s pregnancy – how broke she left him, already a long long time ago – furrowing in days of well kept secrets. And a woman wants to change her name to whisper, wave, wind. The plastic plants laugh at chlorophyll, blow little kisses to the overcast sky. Three cigarette lighters light up at once near the salt shaker whose tiny grains of rice weigh him down. And, oh, how people walk by outside, so far from here and so close, without thinking about the sky, who wanting to change his history, lies down to die among us.   Naomi Ayala works as an education consultant, freelance writer, and teacher, and is a Visiting Humanities Scholar for Hermana a Hermana/Sister to Sister. Her poems and book reviews have most recently appeared in Ploughshares, Poetry Daily, MARGIN: Exploring Modern Magical Realism, and the New Hampshire Review. Her work has also been recently included in First Flight: 24 Latino Poets and Boriquén to Diasporican: Puerto Rican Poetry from Aboriginal Times to the New Millenium (University of Wisconsin Press, WI, 2005). Published in Volume 7, Number 3, Summer 2006.   To read more by this author: Naomi Ayala Ayala's Tribute to Paul Lawrence Dunbar: The Memorial Issue Naomi Ayala's Intro to Vol. 6, No. 2 (Spring 2005) Naomi Ayala: DC Places Issue Naomi Ayala: Split This Rock Issue Naomi Ayala: Tenth Anniversary Issue