Ritmo/Rhythm

BY M A RGAR IT A E NGLE

Mad has decided to catch a vulture,

the biggest bird she can find.

She is so determined, and so inventive,

that by stringing together a rickety trap
of ropes and sticks, she creates
a puzzling structure that just might
be clever enough to trick a buzzard,
once the trap’s baited with leftover pork
from supper.

Mad and I used to do everything together,

but now I need a project all my own,
so I roam the green fields,
finding bones.

The skull of a wild boar.

The jawbone of a mule.

Older cousins show me

how to shake the mule’s quijada,
to make the blunt teeth
rattle.

Guitars.
Drums.
Gourds.
Sticks.
A cow bell.
A washboard.
Pretty soon, we have
a whole orchestra.

On Cuban farms, even death

can turn into
music.

Margarita Engle, "Ritmo/Rhythm" from Enchanted Air. Text

copyright © 2015 by Margarita Engle. Reprinted by
permission of Atheneum Books for Young Readers, an imprint
of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division. All rights
reserved.
Source: Enchanted Air (Atheneum Books for Young Readers,
2015)