by Rosie Prohías Driscoll
Mami loathes the overgrowth
of gray framing her face
darkness skimming shoulders.
Unable to bear another day
she summons her sister:
Ven – ¡que ya no puedo más!
Tía arrives, box of L’Oréal
Excellence in hand, bickering
about Mami’s life choices, today
the shade of light ash brown
that will only accentuate
her wrinkles.
Together they enter the bathroom,
take their places.
Tía quiets herself
lays gloved hands upon
her sister’s bowed head
combs color into thirsty roots
then exits, does not wait
the thirty minutes it takes
to witness the miracle
of Mami emerging
like Lazarus
risen to life.
Rosie Prohías Driscoll is a Cuban-American educator and poet living in Alexandria, Virginia. Her poems have appeared in numerous online and print publications, including The Acentos Review, Saw Palm: Florida Literature and Art, SWWIM Every Day, Pensive: A Global Journal of Spirituality and the Arts, Sin Fronteras/ Writers Without Borders, and No Tender Fences: An Anthology of Immigrant and First-Generation American Poetry. In 2020 she was a finalist for the Orison Poetry Prize. Her first full-length poetry collection, Poised for Flight, is forthcoming in 2022 from Finishing Line Press. Arabella Luna Friedland is a visual artist and writer based in New York City. She’s influenced by a childhood with cartoons, a classical education in anatomy and life drawing, and a firm belief that all art — is a portrait.
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