ANOTHER LIFE
 

Women spend the afternoon squatting on the porch,
                  picking lice from each other's hair.

They spend the evening feeding the little ones,
                  lulling them to sleep in the glow of the bottle lamp.

The rest of the  night
                  they offer their back to be slapped and kicked by the men of the house
                  or sprawl half-naked on the hard wooden cot.

Crows and women greet the dawn together,
                  the women blowing into the oven to start the fire,
                  tapping on the back of  the winnowing tray with five fingers
                 and, with two, picking out the stones.

Half their lives women pick stones from the rice.

All their lives stones pile up in their hearts,
                  no one there to touch them even with two fingers.