Monday, June 27, 2011

WOMAN ON THE SIDEWALK

Asleep at noon
on the sidewalk —
skin and bones in
baggy shorts
baggy t-shirt
and dirt

Under your head,
you clutch a bag
with your belongings —
a tin bowl, tooth-brush
perhaps another shirt

Your sheet, an old plastic sack
that someone used in the past
to carry yuca to the market

The rusted truck cabin,
you used as shelter before,                                     
collected by the city
in a futile effort
to gentrify the area

Exiled to the sidewalks,
you sleep when & where you can
your exhausted mornings
after a night of servicing
truckers at nearby filling stations




By María T. Balogh: published in Spanish by Grafemas

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