A mother pawns her wedding ring.
(places it on the counter, clink)
She thinks of church candles.
(a pious woman lit one this morning and nodded hello)
She thinks of John Kennedy ’s son.
(images and sounds of the
Thinks of his solemn salute at the funeral march.
TV broadcast swell her head)
The man behind the counter hands her
(I can only give you
enough money for a coffin that size.
five hundred for this)
A child sits wordless in a clay hut.
(laughter outside)
She bleeds her first period on the dirt floor.
(mooooo)
Her parents are happy about it.
(outside the hut people speak
She will be traded as a wife
in a dialect I can't understand)
for the amount of three cows.
(mooooo, mooooo)
She will only be worth less from now on.
A old man sees an old woman in a hospital
(loudspeaker: Nurse Thompson report to the nurses station)
He recognizes her eyes, because eyes
(beep, beep, beep. Rinnnnnng)
never change. Never. They were lovers once.
(loudspeaker: Nurse Thompson, Nurse Thompson)
She does not recognize him.
(beep, beep, beep)
She does not even see him.
(Hello...ahh…are you…)
Just like the first time they met.
(loudspaker: Nurse Thompson, Nurse Thompson, report to....)
A green woman breaks into a house
(Glass breaks)
she finds the poet sitting by his desk,
(Hmmm...shit)
She sits comfortably inside his head.
(bzzzz. brain cells move to make room. bzzz.)
She polishes the substance he thinks of.
(...a woman pawns her wedding ring)
She shines his musty thoughts with her breath
(...she thinks of church candles)
until only the fingerprint of his voice remains.
(...she thinks of John Kennedy’s son)
