The million flies
everywhere
never held me back

from sugarcane juice.
I didn’t care
where the vendor’s hands

had been
or that a little soap
still clung

to the glasses.
I didn’t mind
the strays eying

me from the trash
heaped along the road.
It never occurred

to me the ice
I crunched
with such pleasure might

be cadaverous
or that I encouraged
child labor, I didn’t put

so much thought
into a glass of juice
but tilted

my head back
and drank it all
down in urgent gulps.