Only the abbesses accused me
only they did not believe
I entrusted myself day and night
I entrusted myself to the trip
to the wheel of fortune
to the noise of the slamming door
to the sweetness of ‘have a good day’
to the nakedness of love

only they, convent and bars,
rosary and corridors

were the watchmen of those
who believed in dawns
new dawns
with smiling suns
painted by children

Carmen Naranjo (1928-2012) was a Costa Rican poet, diplomat, champion of women’s rights, of Sephardic origin, she grew up in an austere household, and at the age of seven, while living in San Jose, became seriously ill with polio. Due to her ailment, she began to be educated in a private home and thus began her fondness for literature, including the works of Plato and Aristotle, and later the works of Whitman, Faulkner, Emily Dickinson and Carson McCullers. Her literary work has been described as “subversive to expose the ills of Costa Rican society and such as deforestation, malnutrition, poverty and alcoholism.