The Puerto Rican Literature Project

Aloof, you are deep in thought.

Undoubtedly your head is turned intently.

And you are a young woman whose dress

Is inscribed with vividly

Colored flowers.

The blur of your extended arm,

Your right leg frozen in the foreground,

You look out and upward,

Held to the barest minimum

Of the road ahead.

Your full body does not pivot

To look back at your pursuers

Who move closer.

Attempting to dispel

Their headlong intensity,

Mistrusting the value of words,

Your mouth may open,

The emblems of power

On the roughed blossoms

Of your cheeks.