Just a Minute Longer,the Fountains of Alameda Park

I've been quite remiss of late. I haven't posted a thing in over a year. Today,  I was reviewing some photographs I took while visiting Alameda Park in Mexico City during  a particularly balmy Easter week last year.

Bounded on the south by Avenida Juárez and on the north by Avenida Hidalgo, the Parque Alameda Central, is a shady and beautifully maintained green space with fine old trees, benches, numerous fountains decorated with mythological figures, and pieces of sculpture. It is situated next to the most beautiful building in Mexico City,  the Palacio de Bellas Artes (Palace of Fine Arts).  The park was originally constructed in 1592 and in pre-Columbian times had been a bustling market place . 

 

The Alameda Central Park has been, since its creation, a place in which all classes of  Mexican society come together as equals, a place in which people meet and happily coexist. The thing that really fascinated me about this space was the way that the local people interacted with the fountains with reckless abandon. We Americans tend to be a bit reserved in public. We shy away from being our true selves if we think that anyone might be watching. The Mexican people that  I observed that day enjoying the cooling waters of the fountains appeared completely relaxed, without a care in the world..... such an enviable state! Perhaps, if I live in this idyllic place long enough, I too will find that level of comfort in my own skin. The following is a little verse that I wrote when I reviewed the pictures today.

                                                       

            Water, water everywhere    

..... cool.....clear elixir of life....I celebrate  your  existence  on this toasty, sweaty summer day...... 

   your  chilly  touch on my  skin makes my heart leap for joy....each time I feel your soft caress, I squeal like a  love sick teenager.

My insides giggle  with excitement.  My tummy jiggles like  a bowl full of tutti fruity jello.  You stealthily sneak up on me, erupting  like a burping  geyser.... making me all misty-faced with your dewy droplets... evoking an exhilarating afternoon jaunt on the Maid of the Mist .

 I love when you tickle my tootsies and trickle lazily down my  nose. You entice me to cavort like a loony, stomping my feet not unlike a goofy toddler until the water licks my ankles 

  .....I prance around in silly circles...... hopping back and forth between the glistening droplets that sparkle like so many crystal  chandeliers....

.... I like to squish you between my toes...or poke my fingers over the water spout in joyful anticipation of your imminent liberation.

 I  loll about,  akin to an over-fed calf in a field of  fresh clover, making excuses to stay" just a minute longer." Such a lucky girl am I.