I have a new office( I promise a photo next time). It is a small internet( 4 computers) café in a tiny town called El Studiante, located in the back room of a beauty parlor.

I anticipate success in this new locale for several reasons. I can drive the back roads to get here, which is safer since I don’t have a driver’s license. Though it is common for people to drive without a license, I can’t imagine the mordita(little bite i.e. bribe)- I mean ticket, I would have to pay, as a gringa driving without one. Also this aesthetica is very popular, so it is likely the café will be open most days, and (this is amazing) the proprietor gave me a telephone number so I can call to be sure it’s open before driving the half hour to get there! This constitutes customer service which is pretty scarce in these parts. The proprietor, and the only worker in the shop’s name is Gaby, he is an openly gay man working six days a week upward of 12 hours a day to put his three sisters through school. I love him already.
Napowrimo has been going well, I have written a poem almost every day, with the exception of my hellacious return trip, which involved: and eight hour delay, unscheduled connection with ten minutes between flights and an hour and a half wait in immigration; and the day I woke up to my dog Jake bleeding through the nose profusely. This went on for two days, and was very stressful and not very poetic. I thought he was going to die, though I did rally and write a poem on day two of the blood-letting which has thankfully, ceased.

Jake can make a pillow out of anything.

I have decided to attempt to publish each poem separately and schedule them daily, so you won’t end up with a big chunk of poetry to deal with or discard as would likely be my inclination. Since I’m several days behind I will be publishing poems into May, at which point, VSVEVG will resume its’ regular programing about the wackiness of life in rural Mexico, with an occasional poem, art digression, recipe, or sermon on saving the planet thrown in.
Hope you enjoy the poems, and stick around for the essays too! paz, Abby