A week before Carnival:

an ordinary bar in Cabo Frio

sixty kilometres east of Rio;

week-ending ‘Cariocas’ everywhere:

you and I,  Helvécio and Regina

drinking chilled  ‘Atlantica’ beer;

iced  ‘cachaça’  fleshed with native lime.

The tiny band plays samba after samba

throughout the night.  The ‘cavaquinho’ man -

a serious-faced ‘moreno’  -  sketches something

of the melody as seven others

shake out a genealogy of carnival rhythm.

As dawn was breaking one of the band

invites you to sing a Bahiana song.

Perhaps he saw it quickening in your eye.

At first you falter – an exile returning

to once familiar waters  –

then as the waves gather

you duck your head and re-emerge

with an oil in your eyes and hair as black

as the newly-departed night.

You struck out then, confident

in your full-voiced song of celebration!

‘Ah, querida!’  then we watched you dance

your dance of innocence and rapture.

The band were exalted.

My heart filled with an alien joy

as the ramshackle bar

flooded with morning light.

Your natural expertise

demanded recognition:

as we left the oldest man

confessed himself your ardent fan.

. . . . . . . .

Glossary

‘Cariocas’ Natives or inhabitants of Rio de Janeiro in Brasil.

‘Cachaça’ A white Brazilian rum made from sugar cane.

‘Cavaquinho’ A  small, four-stringed instrument something like

a small guitar in appearance.  (Also known as the ‘cavaco’:

“Moreno” Brown-skinned:  a very popular term never considered

offensive;  it focuses more on skin colour than ethnicity

‘Querida’ Sweetheart.