seams and stitching ♡ published

THE GIRLS - PART THREE - SALOME

you were a family friend
your mother and sisters
came to my mother early mornings
and wept at the kitchen table
this is how we came to
be friends, salome
you ventured out to meet me
one day while i spat plum pits
far across the backyard
said, alabar al Señor
and sat down beside me
you moved your fingers across
my forehead, blessing me
before i could say bendicion
you were more religious than me
a wooden rosary clanked against
the buttons going up your white dress
a black chal covered your hair
and you bowed your head
i offered you a plum
and you took it softly
turned your face away so
i couldn't see you bite into the fruit
you thanked me and
squeezed my hand
then rose and walked away
i did not know your father would
give a black eye when he saw
the sticky plum juice on your chin
you prayed the Virgin Mary that night
and i forgot about the Lord
salome, oh salome
you were so beautiful under that chal
your throat, your eyes, your mouth
a cathedral, a temple, a basilica
a shy butterfly
afraid to spread your wings
salome your name was too holy
to be said by los matones
your name pressed against
the roof of their mouths
your name rolling over their tongues
your name shelved on their gums
they wait for when they can speak it
salome, salome, like a prayer
they want to touch you
to worship inside you like you
were a church, to moan your
name like it was Hail Mary
salome, salome
the most beautiful girl on the island
if only they knew
what you told me one early morning
while you washed behind the
blankets hanging from my plum tree
you had had a circumcision
for you there would be no placer
they would praise you from
inside your stained glass cathedral
beautiful and holy and pure
and you would feel nothing
oh salome
this is what your father took away
pleasure
this is why your mother and sisters
wept at my kitchen table
lack of pleasure
i am sorry for you, truly sorry
lo siento, salome
alabar al Señor
you are no cathedral,
no temple, no basilica
you are a just a girl living a life
that will never know pleasure
have you ever tried to feel?
let your hands wander in the bath?
snuck out and found the matones?
allowed them to worship?
oh salome, you gorgeous girl
hidden under a chal and
choked by a wooden rosary
shackled by a circumcision
forever in pursuit of something
you will never feel
there is nothing i can say
to tell you how triste i feel
salome, you are beautiful
i have remembered the Lord for you
i pray to Him that you will
know a different kind of pleasure
take off that chal and rosary
tell your father he does not own you
find los matones or los maridos
fall in love or use someone
just live, salome
find your own pleasure
conquer this
i will plant a plum tree for you
one for you and one for miriam
the tree of rape and the
tree of circumcision
you can come and worship under it
anytime you like
it will be your cathedral,
your temple, your basilica
alabar al Señor

• Translations •

Alabar a Señor - Praise the Lord
Bendicion - Bless me
Chal - Shawl, head-wrap
Los matones - The hoodlums
Los maridos - The husbands
Triste - Sad, sorry, sorrowful