& as you bow your heads to pray
& as you bow your heads to pray / pray
a silent prayer
around a chicken who lies motionless
before your hungry eyes / dead
dead as your dreams / as your hopes
/ dead as that silent prayer
that dies more & more each day /
that no ears will ever share
that that dead chicken / which you
in your shame dare to call a turkey
will never hear
not that god / lost in the heavens
eating real turkey
who to you now pray for blessings
will never hear
/ i wish you a happy thanksgiving.
& as you bow your heads to pray / pray
a silent prayer
for the little boy who dances in the snow /
barefooted
he loves to greet new falling snow
& has no shoes
& hopes that santa on christmas eve
will slide down the chimney
of his tenement slum
& in his stockings which he has hung
by the fire escape
/ o so carefully
as not to tear them any more
will find them filled with little hopes
& tiny dreams
& beneath that narrow leaf / which he
in his shame dares call a tree
/ a christmas tree
santa will leave toys
of wooden soldiers
& plastic dolls
filled with love for him and his (
& does not know
that santa nods on roofs
& climbs on fire escapes
& snatches pocket-books
/ & leaves no wooden soldiers
or plastic dolls
filled with love for him & his
beneath his narrow leaf)
/ i wish him a merry christmas.
& as you bow your heads to pray / pray
please pray a silent prayer
for the poor old woman who sits by the stove /
to keep warm
as she looks out her window /
watching the falling snow
& for the numbers' man /
she waits / waits silently
for steam to rush through rusty pipes /
for santa to stop his nodding
for you to stop your prayer / open your eyes
& boooooooo away the mouse
that nibbles on your chicken (
there are too many prayers
that need be prayed
for all/ all to be done
at just one meal)
& waits / she silendy waits
for god to hear your prayers
/ after dinner /
/ i wish her a happy new year.
Jesús Papoleto Meléndez, "& as you bow your heads to pray" from Hey Yo! Yo Soy!: 40 Years of Nuyorican Street Poetry A Bilingual Edition. Copyright © 2012 by Jesus Papoleto Melendez. Reprinted by permission of 2Leaf Press.
Source:
Hey Yo! Yo Soy!: 40 Years of Nuyorican Street Poetry A Bilingual Edition
(2Leaf Press, 2012)
