Recycled Woman

For Silvia Nascetti

Some say she is haunted

A woman with the metamorphosed look of all women

Who is misshaped and never belongs to one city

Recycled woman was not born from the conventional seeds

Her birth certificate is an open page with no notes on birth

Instead there are descriptions about her

Hands: from bodies collected in the Caspian Sea

Legs: bones from a famine in Africa

Hair: each strand comes from the hair of women in burqas

Eyes: from the eyes waiting, waiting all the time 

The recycled woman has a heart

Filled with fumigated love

Her dreams will be recycled again

Her voice is loud as she sings in a language unknown to men

We think recycled people are the answer to racism

I lost my shoe

Of course I remember the day I lost my shoe

We were only kids and decided to go in search of butterflies

We walked for hours, passing through many plains and villages

We saw many unforgettable scenes like people

Who were baking bread outdoors and the smoke and the aroma

Of fresh bread made our stomach gurgle. Moments later

A kind old man came with two big loafs of bread

For us to taste, a taste that never can be replaced

We saw an old woman milking her cow while singing

With the rhythm of her hands and gently

Gazing at the two little strangers

We passed many colorful chickens freely enjoying the grass

While intoxicated roosters were chasing hot hens!

The color of the feathers on the roosters under the bright sun

Looked like Egyptian jewels

I remember we walked for hours not thinking we can get lost

Not feeling any danger

Finally we reached a creek with lots of trees around it

Covered with many butterflies in different sizes dancing around

For few hours we were busy chasing butterflies

Then we decided to dangle our feet in the cold crispy water of the creek

Moments later while we were dancing our feet in the water

A plush of wave took one of my shoes and disappeared

You looked at me with your hazel big eyes to see my reaction

I smiled and said now I am like those kids in the village with bare feet

We started walking back to go home when you held my hand

And said we are like a husband and wife. A wife with no shoe

We played, jumped and found butterflies all the way to our house

Where our mother was reading her book

And did not even notice we were gone all day