None of These Women Are Smiling |
(POSTCARDS FROM MEXICO)
: Two Senoras at the Party
You will not see them on the dance floor
not notice the newly permed hair
the yellow and green dresses
with lace collars and hems
not even the unblinking eyes.
You'll remember nothing about them
but the glitter and blur
of their red and silver shoes
which couldn't stop tapping
the whole night long.
: Keeping Vigil
Though these women of Oaxaca
still carry the bright red banners
of their men gone to battle,
their eyes have emptied -
fixed now on some place so far inside themselves
that an army of crows flies just overhead
and they never look up to the sky.
: Heading Home
She moves so quietly
through the cematary
that she startles
the flock of birds
resting there -
Within these white walls
beneath a cloudy
morning sky,
the flutter of one
hundred tiny wings.
copyright 2016
Amy
Uyematsu |