Three hundred pesos
what a long time it takes
for a mother to earn so much money
to buy herself free
Only on Sunday afternoons do I have the choice
of working for coins I can save
here they are
just a few
so I work and work while my son does his chores
learning trades so that someday
when she is dead and he is free
what a fine tailor he will become
like his father, my own Toribio, love of my life
sewing fragments of linen and silk
to hold the pieces of our lives in place
with tight, careful stitches
seams
buttons, hooks
like the hook-shaped fingers of the men
who work all day in the sun in the sugar fields
grasping each tall cane with the left hand
then chopping it down with the right hand
holding a huge knife, el machete
the long knife I pray my husband will never be
tempted to use
in an effort to speed the slow aging of our owner
as she moves
step by step
toward her natural
death.