Scenes Overheard in Music City, II

for Beth

On a seat in the Spanish subway in September
Sitting silently together in September
Mother's Moroccan inmigrant hand reaching,
resting on a daughter's American turista knee, as
Looking straight ahead and through
the tears falling down her veiled cheeks,
she mourns a sister's pain
on that September Spanish subway.

Que Viva

for Pancho

Will you take my hand?
May I have this dance?
Let us love while we have the chance.
We'll step lightly through those crosshairs,
softly past those hard stares,
swinging through the sullen shadows,
beckoning to the beat between us,
reminding all those rifles round us,
that though their gunshots
graze our shoulders,
we're alive and growing older,
we're not afraid and growing bolder.
Heart in hand
we take this chance
to live our love
to dance our dance.