by Lois Hard
She’s not afraid to be alone
or to keep her tether short.
Safety is the issue here–
an impenetrable wall
that wraps around her fortress.
No biting bullets, no clawing blades
of insults not meant for her ears.
But she does hear, and the concrete window slams shut.
Yet despite the danger perceived outside,
Carmelita comes.
It hasn’t always been this way;
she used to venture out
and roam around the countryside
with an insatiable appetite
for experiencing every imaginable weather wonder.
She understood the crying rain
and the freezing tears of humanity
and the hot, arid days of August when the locusts call
for war to ignite the heavens.
Yet despite the danger perceived outside,
Carmelita comes.
It doesn’t matter that she grows her own gardens
and knows the warmth of the sun on her back.
It doesn’t matter that she cooks her own meats
With delectable spices–
an aroma that would arouse any foreigner to eat at her table.
It is the haunting that deprives her of the longing she seeks most.
A stare that stings like humiliation.
The look that signals the mark of the beast
etched on her forehead for petrification.
Yet despite the danger perceived outside,
Carmelita comes.
Category: Poetry