I am Thinking of Columbus--{)! Newly Caulked, Dry-Docked Ships ...
Quiet & forget. Stay quiet & forget, she must have thought, mining The motions (of his body) like a schoolboy, learning the letters of His own name, in the Latin-or Greek?-a language, not entirely Unlike her own, magnified by a clarity born out of failure, a hand On a slumped shoulder, that says, I'm sorry to have to teU you this ... That says, Your father ... but it is not her father she thinks of now, Or the cold hand that brushed her knees to touch her inner thigh Beneath the dress of its ordinary life, or the horses, in the stables Where they met & continued to meet, congregating around whatEver light the moon managed & the dark slub of near-emulsified Foods, Juan would lug from the market, which filled their trough And kept them warm-though at times, their nostrils, flared like Serpentine dragons, would produce so much steam, their muzzles Seemed masked by all that smoke, & she'd been afraid they'd die, If not from cold, from their own asphyxiation, & it seemed unfair One should die twice. Stay quiet & forget-she must have thought, Holding to her father's hand, as he pulled her through the streets Of men & women, children, chickens & dogs-stay quiet & forget.
Summer - Fall 2006
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