Carlos Reyes
 

Man Walking Cow

He has saved her from four lanes of traffic
on the Inner Ring Road of Domluru
brushed her black coat to a sheen,
and dressed her up, starting at the tip
of curved upward horns, she could hook
the yellow moon with, to her well-trimmed
hooves that were the nails of a princess,
wrapping her in blood red, and green yarns,
elegant silk saris, and bleeding madras.

He leads her like a drunken bride
though the posher neighborhoods
showing her the quieter worlds,
humbly honoring her, his means
of livelihood, or simply to shame
those who look down on him
and his cow from higher windows. 
 

Where a Ditch Has Opened in the Earth

A standing black plastic bag––
small bare feet beneath it
then movement
a child at play . . .

Blind inside her plastic garb
she drifts
to within inches
of the precipice

Her sari clad mother
in the ditch itself
scrapes red dirt
into a shallow copper bowl
offers it up
a sacrifice to the sun
 

Carlos Reyes is the author of Keys to the Cottage: Stories from the West of Ireland (2015) and Pomegranate, Sister of the Heart (2012). His most recent book of translations is Poems of Love & Madness; Poemas de amor y locura; Selected Translations (2013). contact