Saturday walk
through the neighborhood
skipping, meandering, twirling
down the street.
5 explorers and 2 guides.
“Look at that!”
“I wonder why? …”
Questions materialize
out of thin air,
as leaves flutter down
randomly onto heads.
A neighbor’s dog barks ferociously
at our approaching party.
“Shut up dog!” a brave explorer said.
“Good dog,” I call out, encouragingly.
“He’s only doing his job,” I say.
Transfixed by the perfume
of a tree in bloom,
we continue slowly on our way
(and they don’t hate him anymore,
because I am a guide).
Lupita Eyde-Tucker is a bilingual poet and translator raised in New Jersey and Guayaquil, Ecuador. She is the winner of the 2021 Unbound Book Festival Emerging Poet Award, the 2019 Betty Gabehart Prize, and in 2018 was selected as an AWP Writer to Writer Mentee by poet Maggie Smith. In 2022 her poetry manuscript, "Eucalyptus," was a finalist for the Andrés Montoya Prize from Letras Latinas. The manuscript explores her Sephardic Jewish ancestry and bi-cultural heritage.
Not Enough Poetry 
I like this! I imagine the five explorers being children, in which case it’s great that they have such a compassionate adult to guide them. So much can be taught just by going for a walk!
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Thanks Marilyn, that is exactly right! I have 5 children, and my husband and I are their “guides.”
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Good imagery for a Saturday walk, bravo.
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Thank you! I had fun writing it 🙂
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Love this poem. Thanks for pointing me in this direction!
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