Marketplace, Barbados

Two markets here, one where the woman,
the other where light shops, light
getting the best of both, coveting
equally the showy red blossoms
and the showy red dress, the green
and white vegetables and the leftover
live pink arm. A tawny-armed woman,
violet purse slung back over her shoulder,
bends to take something home, and light
and I decide to take her home.
Overlooking us, upper right, a sharp
mercantile eye looks only to sell,
sees our looking as an incompleteness
(unlike the arm on the right,
complete, attached to nothing,
leaving the eye out on a limb),
waits in the flat sun for something else
to happen.

Dean Blehert

Last Updated: October 5, 2002