We Who Wait for Miracles
“We Who Wait for Miracles” was first published by Ekstasis as part of their 2023 Winter Collection.
Lights blink at us then flicker out, like they usually do this time of year When a storm blows in, it stirs up the dust and dog hair and shadows we’re too tired to sweep out of the living room again. We are in the splash zone: thunderheads barge into dusky ocean sky with storm spray and smell of rain on the swelling tide of the rainy season. Sighing, we sink into our hand-me-down sofa, lower the mainsails, watch lightning spin cobwebs in the clouds, witness water rising in the patio. For a while, we sit in reverent silence, remember three who died, struck by lightning “en seco” this time last year, and the sound of rain on the tin roof makes us feel safer. Resurrection has not come with the rain, but we remain, like smoldering wicks, tucked far away from snuffing fingers hoping for resurrection anyway. I draw my knees to my chest hold on tight, give thanks for the cold, then stand embraced, no longer hidden from the face of the wind. My black-bottomed feet make mud-puddle tracks as I wander into the kitchen’s yawning dark. I strike a match, then pour milk and hot cocoa mix into a char-kissed pot, and wait. "¿No te da miedo?” he asks, and the wind tries to steal his words before they fumbling reach me: a tremor, tenderly testing the atmosphere between us from the cushioned crow’s nest, wondering if lightning might strike me while I stir. I am already afraid, so I say, “No.” With a cellphone flashlight, I pour up two mugs for storm-sick couch surfers to sip. When I return to the helm, he says, “Thank you.” I smile and say, “No problem.” This is all I can give, in a world that leaves wounds only miracles can heal. So we sip, warmed and filled, while we wait and watch for a miracle. “En seco” — lit. “in dry,” sometimes used when referring to lightning striking before it starts to rain or when the storm is still far off; also used to refer to “stopping someone dead in their tracks” as in “lo paró en seco.” “¿No te dé miedo?” — “Doesn’t that scare you?”


This is a feast to the senses and a hug to the soul.