Didi Menendez

Thorazine Morning

The side of Maria's little temples
had curls shaped like crescents,
coiled wild like the Havana moon.

Thick moorish eyelashes
protected her emerald gaze from
stigmata virgin fingers drenched in holy water.

Every Christmas Maria's mother,
let the nuns of el Sacrado Corazon
costume her child as baby Jesus
in celebration of the Three Wise Men's visit.

After the parade, she would skip home,
a crushed rose petals rosary,
wrapped around her five year old hand,
a gift from Mother Superior.

Unlike most afternoons,
when the scent of castile soap greeted her,
Maria, was met with wax candles, last-rite prayers,
her mama's still yellow hepatitis glow.

Her sixty years since have been spent
with the thought that God forgot to take his
pomegranate seeds like Thorazine.

Every morning she washes away
stains of the grenadine tint left on her palms
from her daily dosage of rosary beads.

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Didi Menendez is a single parent of four children residing in Miami, Florida. She is the creator and web master/designer of an online Poetry Zine, Mi Poesias.

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