Those Delicate Things
by Fernando Perez

THOSE DELICATE THINGS

by Fernando Perez

Mexico City, 2019


Out on Calle Fernando Montes de Oca

from the roof of an old pickup

a young woman’s voice loops

from a brass horn speaker;

this liberation trumpeted

to the petal spathe of my ear:

“se compra

colchones,

tambores,

refrigeradores,

estufas,

lavadoras

microondas

or anything made of old iron

that you will sell”

I imagine a woman

who no longer has to work,

her fingers dirty still

from the hours she toils

in her garden,

then remember watching

as you pulled weeds,

slicing green finger stem

at the base of Calla Lilies,

bringing inside

something beautiful

but not for sale, ephemeral

flower or “alcatraz”

I mean to say,

freedom from domestic servitude

as you placed those delicate things

in their own cell or vase and watched

the slow wilt from the silence.