Mother by Nancy Morejón‏

My mother
had no patio garden
but rocky islands
floating in delicate corals
under the sun.
Her eyes mirrored no clear-edged branch
but countless garrottes.
What days, those days when she ran barefoot
over the whitewash of orphanages,
and didn't laugh
or even see the horizon.
She had no ivory-inlaid bedroom,
no drawing room with wicker chairs,
and none of that hushed tropical stained-glass.
My mother had the handkerchief and the song
to cradle my body's deepest faith,
and hold her head high,
banished queen –
She gave us her hands, like precious stones,
before the cold remains of the enemy.

http://www.cubanow.net/pages/articulo.php?month=6&year=2010&secc=7&item=2352&pa