Missing

In the back of an Ecuadorian pickup truck taxi, Galápagos, Ecuador. March 20, 9:30 a.m.

It hit me when we hit the pavement:
I´m leaving the Galápagos
and I´m not done yet.
As we left the dirt road and Jatun Sacha behind
a wave of loss overtook me.
I wanted to cry, turn back, turn back,
I´ve left my heart behind
in the soil and the scalesia and the seeds that stick,
in the mora and the machetes,
in the water and the washing stone,
in the sweat and the strain and the siesta.
But we kept on driving
and I pretended that my tears came from the wind.