The Puerto Rican Literature Project

When you recruit a 6 year old

to take a picture

of two women,

one whose hair has grayed,

the other who has yet to understand

how age affects the body,

both naked

she waits for their eyes

to tell the story she wants to hear.

She pays no attention

to the way age wrinkles the eyes

or causes breasts to sag.

Does not compare

the nakedness of youth

to the paleness of its future self?

Waits until the way the young woman

looks at her elder

says, “I have so much

to learn from you

so much to ask.”

Waits until the elder looks past

the one who will eventually know her as ancestor,

as if she sees the space where she will stand

to watch, as they move through life

when she is gone.