2011 Issue - Santa Fe Community College

Adding water to precious dust to form paint.
Lime along with sand mixes together
as layers upon layers of memory are added.
Intonaco settles, and waits for the first pigment
to be inserted.
Waiting for twenty-minutes
before delicately applying more layers
of paint so that the raven’s head appears
while a fancy shawl dancer becomes
a ghost rising up to tell a new story
as Penobscot singers
sing of A.I.M.
Magically, the golden moment arrives,
as the plaster draws in the pigment
before the very eyes.
Running out of the studio shouting,
“The Golden Moment is here!”
The dawn of special replies,
“Hurry back!
before you miss it.”
VII.
Running for cover
between 4 to 5 p.m.
when all is still
except for the
hungry mosquitoes.
For don’t you know
it’s only the female
that feeds this very hour.
Santa Fe Literary Review 57