Barcelona Diary

Women

There's a woman with gleaming blond hair who plays the Viola & distracts
the most attentive audience &

a young girl with auburn curls & able hands who fillets the chicken's breast
just so & the hooker

who knows what she will do & what she will not & the woman who sells
bananas & could care less &

another who chuckles when you cannot pronounce the names of the wild
mushrooms but will let you sample her tomato &

pay later...& the woman who sweeps in her orange jump-suit & whistles
& smokes cigars & Nuria who runs the photo lab & will give you a gift

if you're unprepared & won't if you're not & Erica who has found a home
with the nuns & panhandles for change &

the rest will cut you off on the stair or at the counter or through the door &
when you offer a seat on a crowded bus...will smile &

decline & don't wonder & don't object . . . they have a plan & share the
rules but not with you...especially

if you're a man & suspect & haven't declared which side you're on or what
you will bring to the part or contribute at home...