photo: ralph murre - sculptor: unknown
Consuela and Sean
by Donal Mahoney
Through
the nursery glass
Carlos
Montero peeks at Consuela,
his
twelfth, in the arms of a nurse.
Pink
as a peony
with
brilliant black hair,
Consuela
is raw, bawling.
The
nurse takes Consuela
away
to be washed as Carlos
digs
deep in his denims,
locks
elbows, gleams,
turns
to me. I feel odd
in
a suit and a tie as I
wait
to see Sean, our first.
When
the nurse brings Sean to the window,
Carlos
Montero whips off his sombrero,
makes
a bullfighter's pass and beams.
"Senor!" he booms like a tuba. "Ole!"
Suddenly
I'm as happy as he.
~
previously published in Encore Magazine
