BEHIND THE COVER
WHEN I WALK HERE
I SEE PAPER
PASTED ON A FRAME
THINGS ARE NOT EXACTLY
AS THEY MIGHT APPEAR
THEY HIDE BEHIND
THE IMAGE
PAINTED ON THE FRONT
TO BEAR THEIR NAME
A LITTLE COLLAGE
OF ALL THE THINGS THEY OWN
THE TITLE ON
THE BUILDING WHERE
THEY SPEND THEIR DAY
THE PRICE TAG ON THE ARCHITECTURE
THAT THEY CALL THEIR HOME
IT IS NOT SO SHAMELESS
SO BRITTLE
AS FIRST I THOUGHT
THEY BELIEVE IN THIS
AND CARRY CUTOUTS
TO PROTECT THEMSELVES
PLASTIC CARDS TO COVER THEM
POVERTY IS NAKEDNESS
THEIR SHAME
IS TO HAVE NOT
I KNOW WHAT THEY SEE
WHEN SEEING ME
WHY IT FRIGHTENS AND OFFENDS
TOO CLOSE TO SKIN AM I
AND FAR TOO MANY
I MAY TAKE AWAY TOO MUCH
AND LEAVE TOO LITTLE TO PRETEND
I KNOW WHAT THEY DO NOT KNOW
WHAT THEY DON'T PERCEIVE
MY SKIN IS THICKER
THAN THEIR PAPER
LEATHERED BY THE ELEMENTS
OF NEED
IT WILL TAKE
MORE THAN THEIR USARY DISCOMFORT
TO GRANT I DO THEIR WILL
AND THEN JUST LEAVE
IT IS STRANGE TO ME
THAT SO MANY WOULD NOT REALIZE
HOW SIMPLY ANYONE CAN PEEK BEHIND
THE COPY THEY HOLD UP
BEFORE THEIR EYES
SOME ARE FRIGHTENED
SOME ARE JUST UNKIND
MANY MORE JUST NEVER KNEW
THAT YOU COULD FEEL THE SUN
WITHOUT THE LIES
Cosecha
Papa danced with all the babies
Y Abuelita in the evening
After supper in sangria light and air
That felt like nothing on your skin
And tasted fine that time of year
Papa called it 'el abrigo'
The way it held you like his arms
Round and round the patio
The music loud and scratchy
Tio Ermo's radio as loud as it could go
My knees and dress were dusty
And still Mama didn't care
She was laughing through the window
Singing with the grillo
And soon would come out dancing
Bringing wine and sugared melon
And if you wanted it, canela
It tasted fine that time of year
Analea Sanchez
Copyright ©2003 A Sanchez
Mantle (con dios llévese)
Exhausted, breathless, I lie spent
Not merely by the physical tumbled down
My lungs exiled of oxygen
As exalted, I am equally humbled now
Eyes fixed fast on the incredible
Reached out and touched existence
Tiny, incomprehensible
I am speechless, a conduit,
Both transgressor and triumphant awed
By blood and water, faith and pain
Paid respects to Calvary
And in this moment only, granted deity
Entered motherhood anointed
With the labor of my body
And joined in this creation
Assume the power of God
Analea Sanchez
Copyright ©2003 A Sanchez
La Raza
Rythm like the vein in your wrist
If you fill your lungs you sing
Savor the sting on the tip of your tongue
Laughter, labor, mouth and fist
Love is carbon, a visceral thing
And some things may not be undone
Saints and martyrs sleep in your head
Memory resists the cut of the cord
You live absolute, you tend what you bury
The proving the longing
The pride and the dead
The thirst and the birth
And the child the reward
And blood of your blood sanctuary
Analea Sanchez
Copyright ©2003 A. Sanchez
As the River, As the Well
Stand
At one point on the river
Watch the water run
Whether tears or torment
From lance pierced rib or rain
Ever changing, invariably one
Like souls and sorrow passing
Washed
In the font of benediction
Waters run on to remembrance
And still the river will remain
Analea Sanchez
Copyright ©2003 A. Sanchez
Memoria del Mercado
The mother wheeled the stroller, past me on the sidewalk
Her little boy holds something in his hand
A wisp of spirit air, slips quickly by me, dulce
I am kidnapped by a scent, sound billows plentiful
And like the fruit, is everywhere, cherimoya, tejocote
The cerezas - capulin cherries, so red they bleed to black
Sapodilla, guava, saramullo, and papaya
The scents as thick as the atole
A vendor sells somewhere behind me
Warm, impersonating sunshine on my back
And scent of leather, smooth and mild
As the trabajador's voice is rough
Calling his wares without looking up
From his art, to catch me, hold me here in memory
And returning in confusion, did I know
Where I was going just a sigh ago
I turn, as if to follow mother and child
And hollow like myself, the street is empty
Analea Sanchez
Copyright ©2003 A. Sanchez
