Wanderlust and love of travel have taken Katacha Díaz all over the world to gather material for her stories. Her poetry appears with Skipping Stones, The Galway Review, Ethos Literary Journal, Taj Mahal Review, Harvests of New Millenium, Voice of Eve, Muddy River Poetry Review, Visual Verse, Poetry Pacific, Pangolin Review, among others. She lives and writes up in her perch in a quaint little historic town at the mouth of the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest, USA.

The Viceroy’s Favorite

By Katacha Díaz

I haven’t slept a wink.
Where is my elderly Spanish
lover and benefactor, Viceroy
Manuel de Amat, tonight?
I am Amat’s favorite.
I watch the door and wait.

In between puffs of Amat’s 
exotic hand-rolled puro,
a secret Inca blend from the
Amazonas magical rainforest,
I sip mate de coca and wait.
It’s driving me crazy!

I am La Périchole, the Viceroy
Manuel de Amat’s favorite
mistress and actress, the beloved
first lady of 18th century
Peruvian stage, and the subject of
numerous plays, operas, and novels.   

Alas! Viceroy Amat was recalled by
the Spanish Crown, and left the City
of Kings for Spain without recognizing
his paternity of our son and daughter.
But Amat leaves me well provided for —
gifts of jewelry, money, and property.