Wooden flutes graced with brown lips
clever salsemanship techniques
but not enough to halt a stream of
“no gracias”
it's what we've been told to say.
For some of us it's all we know how to.
But when I can sit and draw
and you can stop selling stuff for a second.
we talk about stuff that isn't stuff.
Where am I from and what am I doing – here?
It's fun to sit in parque central-
most of us rush through here.
I don't want to.
Flor, fifteen anos, tried to sell me
4 or 5 table runners
they're beautiful, but who uses tableclothes -
except on picnic tables.
Woven in aquamarine, sienna, lavenders, and crimsons
this is too beautiful for a picnic table.
9 years old, she's selling gum – all she can afford.
Why can't we afford to give 1 quetzal for her gum?
I only had 5 quetzales, she had 0 change.
Maria came up, another with table-runners.
(I don't know the word in English)
They all start out trying to sell, but I rarely can buy.
I never really want to...
you (I) can't just ignore the friend I've made,
after 15 or 20 minutes.
I know I saved 5 or 10 people from
the everpresent “no gracias”
But I couldn't save myself.
How can I say no? I told her the scarves were striking:
works of art really – not from sweatshops -
not a shop of sweat anyways – only her own
- and maybe tears too after a long day
unlooking, distant tourists, with money,
distracted by all the sights to see --
through a pixelated, overpriced cyclops
easy to overlook short, wrinkled women
and young, dark, children.
“Hay muchos extranjeros?”
“Yes, but not many sales.”
A seat and a smile and a sale.
A rest y reir y retrato; like a pavoreal – that's what we'd say in the states.
In the states would we say “no gracias” to Wal-Mart or McDonalds or Shell?
Why is n't it harder with 2 brown eyes and 1 simple smile.
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I keep thinking, wow, I feel similarly! Except I feel this way the most when I see people begging on the street. They have these desperate but quieter pleas hoping that someone will toss coins into their can. So many people walk by them pretending not to notice them. I look at them and smile, and say "Sorry, I have no change." I try to acknowledge them but I wonder how much difference that makes. There was one time,I bought food for a guy that was holding a hungry sign. But when I tried to hand him the food, he said he actually already ate and needed money for a bus pass. I didn't have any cash. At the homeless center, I am learning about building relationships with the guests there. I am hoping that will help me on the streets. It is really cool trying to learn people's stories and getting to a deeper side of them.
ReplyDeleteIt's especially hard to feel okay giving them money once we were told they could get help if they wanted rehabilitation (from drugs) but they'd rather sniff glue. Yes, I'd far rather build relationships.
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