Mariano

The man outside he works for me, his name is Mariano He cuts and trims the grass for me he makes the flowers bloom He says that he comes from a place not far from Guanajuato That's two days on a bus from here, a lifetime from this room. I fix his meals and talk to him in my old broken spanish He points at things and tells me names of things I can't recall Sometimes I just can't but help but wonder who this man is And if when he is gone will he'll remember me at all I watch him close he works just like a piston in an engine He only stops to take a drink and smoke a cigarette When the day is ended, I look outside my window There on the horizon, Mariano's silhouette He sits upon a stone in a south-easterly direction I know my charts I know that he is thinking of his home I've never been the sort to say I'm in to intuition But I swear I see the faces of the ones he calls his own Their skin is brown as potters clay, their eyes void of expression Their hair is black as widow's dreams, their dreams are all but gone They're ancient as a vision of a sacrificial virgin Innocent as crying from a baby being born They hover around a dying flame and pray for his protection Their prayers are all but answered by his letters in the mail He sends them colored figures that he cuts from strips of paper And all his weekly wages, saving nothing for himself It's been a while since I have seen the face of Mariano The border guards they came one day and took him far away I hope that he is safe down there at home in Guanajuato I worry though I read there's revolution every day --- Mariano - Robert Earl Keen, Jr.