Magdalena, and: Will you lead me by the wrist when I am blind?

Magdalena

My Room

He touched my hair to the curtain.
I asked the child to choose a candle.
I asked the man to choose his position.
They both chose San Martín and me on my knees
My back turned to every corner of the room.

Flute. Shade growing up the mountain.
Morning stitched into the window.
The man wrapped his hand around the boy's wrist
And guided him up the river, the candle sputtering,
The flame approaching.

Waiting out these yellow days I think of them
The man and his son - taking a tour of the Nile
Envious of the moon - both of them
Jealous of my morning tree edged with late afternoon light,
Even jealous of my silver bracelets,
How they were pounded from solitude.

My Face

Wherever he is, I will outlive his oldest robe.
I am at that age - ripe for a young man - a delight for the old one.
I am always at that age

My Mat

Midnight, a suture in my robe.
Only room for one on this mat.
Where else is there to wait
But beneath clavicle and thumbs?
I turn myself back like a starched sheet.
I pull them in, slide them under, wrap them inside.
I lay them on my stomach like a rug.
This mat that has carried so many
Has only room for one.

The Promise

My mother told me not to look for him -
The golden one carrying his face in a bottle
The one whose pink fingers open and close like a newborn's mouth
The one trembling beneath his freshly sharpened knife.
How will I know him?
She told me not to look for him.
The one who floats within his own pockets.
The one with crushed eucalyptus leaves in his hair
The one whose promises bleed into his sandals
She told me not to look.

Will you lead me by the wrist when I am blind?

Will you drain the bowl of my cancer
When my body is spinning, unraveling from its spindle?

Of course not.
You will be pulling the crimson ribbon between your teeth,
Unwrapping the gifts of the fair-haired, the red head.
You will be peeling the rind of some new fruit.

Take my wrist now.
Empty me now.

Later, I will have the gift of shadows.
I will have the wood's invisible center.