Flying out of Boston this morning, my husband, our friends Derek and Jeannette, and I touch down before lunch in busy Nassau, the largest city in the Bahamas--a distinct contrast of climate and culture to where we came from. The taxi ride from the airport passes long white sand beaches lined with palms. We check into our worn downtown hotel within view of the pink parliament building and head out to explore: tourist shops, liquor stores, pirate museum, straw market, conch fishermen, line of restaurants on Arawak Cay selling cracked (fried) conch and rum cocktails, abandoned buildings, art museum, crowds of uniformed schoolchildren, rum distillery, honking cars, flowers. We've gained about 60 degrees, the place literally wraps its warm arms around us. Heat is a foreign country.
A small jungle grows
amid ruined, pink walls.
Doves nest here now.
