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The Smile of a Country Couple
Inured to a way of life, in their
mother’s wombs, in the last stage of
that brutal colonial age; then, suffering
the war with all body and soul to witness,
at not yet ten, so many deaths under the bombing, bombing, and after the war another war
for survival with nothing to eat… just filling
stomachs with roots of grass and skins of trees;
then, meeting at less than twenty, giving birth
to two boys and three girls; feeding them,
shepherding them all through college, helping
them find jobs and spouses; and when at times
they visit with their own kids and say,
“Let’s eat out and buy a dress.” still suggesting,
“Why not cook?” and “I can still wear this one.”
and at last the time comes when their bodies
listen to them only grudgingly, complaining,
“Donkeys become old, and not human bodies?”
Now, the couple smile at each other.
“We’ve succeeded, anyway; we survived!
and without us our next generation
would not be racing confidently into the future.”
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