ALMA, HER EYES SHINY COAL
ebony, her hair
glistening against
a pink bunting.
She is grinning,
looks ready for
adventure. Some
where else, birds
are coming back,
somebody puts
on green. In
Guatemala City
morning mist
burns off over the
hills in the distance.
Outside a window,
someone hawking
flutes and neck-
laces, carpets and
bags of nuts. The
wind is full of
marimbas and
lilies. She is the
music those waiting
to hold her go over
in their heads, the
lily they have waited
for their lives to
be the vase she
can bloom in
SOUL SONG FOR ALMA KARMINA
not a bluesy blues
but rose colored,
crimson. A song
of coming to you.
Bright strands
woven with suns,
lips and lilies,
bright Guatemalan
cloth. Past volcanos
and Mayan temples,
a song from rain
forests and swamps,
emerald grass
lands. Not a song
with heavy stones
in its mouth but
a dancing song, Alma
waiting for the ones
wanting her singing,
her onyx hair, the
river she floats
north to them on
AWAITING ALMA
Somewhere beyond the
temples, beyond
monkeys and toucans,
Coatimundis. Under
cloth woven of blues
and purples threaded
with animals and
leaves, the black
haired baby waiting like
something ripening.
The moon hands over
her cradle. A wind of
banana leaves and
coffee blends with
lilies and roses as
she will with the
ones waiting for her
Lyn Lifshin has published over 130 books and chapbooks including three from Black Sparrow Press: Cold Comfort, Before It's Light and Another Woman Who Looks Like Me, as well as The Silk Road from Night Ballet Press, alivelikealoadedgun from Transcendent Zero Press, and the forthcoming THE SILK ROAD and THE REFUGEES