Spanish Amah

F.G. Capitano

Cleaning quietly, humbly scraping off

their fecule grease, with chipped work-worn nails.

Under their nurtured garden's orange tree

a line runs another's clothing, the sun-dried soul

of who she wants to be. From the kitchen

comes heavy grime-sizzled smells of thieving

cookery, mixing sweat and oil and spice.  

She knows terra-cotta roofs, marble floors,  

Roman porches lording over glowing pools,  

imported gold-leaf, lapis lazuli,  

and arched doorways to a Spanish Villa  

cannot always hide interior designs.

She wanders, as she washes dishes

by the window, and looking out onto  

the Roman pillared patio, listens  

to the birds, the persistent rustling

of palm trees big enough to build  

a house for her. She listens to the rush  

of cars and motorbikes, of life outside,

anything to keep away her ears and eyes

from what's within.

The children's cries of pain begging to relent,

each slap for them, a slap for her as well.

Tears come, but they are useless, wiped away  

as screams grow louder, and she can't do a thing  

but wipe away the blood.

In the silent night, when all her work is done,

and the moonlight's quiet serenade falls

on tired ears, she mules to quarters of her own

behind the big house. As she leaves, the night's silence  

is not sound enough to cover up a mother  

crying soft inside, pouring still another drink.

She shuts the wrought iron door, hides this misery,

trying to efface it from her memory.

Tomorrow she'll be forced to see once more.

F.G. Capitanio is an emerging author, poet, and novelist. A recent Cum Laude graduate of Bridgewater State College, he has a bachelor's degree in History and English. His poetry has won honorable mention in the Utmost Christian Writers Foundation 2006 Poetry Competition. He has been published in the 2006 edition of the Gold Crown Award-winning literary journal The Bridge, the April 2007 edition of SP Quill Quarterly, and the book Divine Intervention, published by Tharseo Publishing. His first book, The House on Atlas Falls, was just recently completed and is in the editing phase of the publishing process. He is now on his second novel, Very Bad Things. He lives on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where he has started a local writer's workshop and has worked as a writing tutor.