Sonny Perez
Selling carpets
We rolled them and stitched them
In jute. The more I handled them the more
I felt the rougher tinier hands
Prom in between fingers which had
Played the bitter threads
Soaking up the patterns
Like television.
They stood in the basement
Like pillars of long forgotten minarets
Each a sister, but each with
Her own song. Waiting to
Be stretched open and deflowered
Arranged into heights
Waiting for unfeeling suitors.
And through the years they
Would long
To sing in another scale
Their patterns like hands painted in henna.
Unyielding under their owners
They would lie still giving nothing
And we felt their exile
But still waited to sell then,
And celebrated with oily
Keema and whiskey when we did.
They would only sit dumb and speechless
On marbled halls and floors,
The simurgh forever caged
In the warps and wefts
Of pristine houses,
But we never spoke of this
And just waited for the bell
To ring so we could serve our
Next customer.
Page(s) 67
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