All day long, she stoops to the dull
cadence of a hopeless song flitting
through her mind. The young girl with
long braided black hair and olive cheeks
longs for things common to others, an
education, a separate bedroom in a
warm house, days without backbreaking
labor picking vegetables for those with
tables filled with delicious food, and
laughter. I pity her toiling in the vast
unforgiving fields of dark loam hour after
hour, day after day, month after month,
always wondering if there is a balcony in
a white two-story stucco house in a city
somewhere, where she could look down
on a beautiful garden of flowers, and
dream, and then retreat into a warm
house with a table filled with delicious
food, and laughter.
James G Piatt
James, a retired professor and octogenarian, is a pushcart and best of web nominee. He has published 3 collections of poetry, “The Silent Pond” (2012), “Ancient Rhythms,” (2014), and “LIGHT,” (2016), and over 1,000 poems, in such magazines as Global Poetry, Westward Quarterly, Miller’s Pond, Poetic Diversity, American Aesthetic, Penwood, Gold Dust Poetry, Scarlet Leaf, The Linnet’s Wings and over 120 others. His fourth collection of poetry will be released this year. He earned his BS and MA from California State Polytechnic University, and his doctorate from BYU.