The Exchange: Oaxaca, Mexico
Murrey, Matthew
Poem The Exchange: Oaxaca, Mexico ...they placed them on some rather narrow stones which had been prepared as places for sacrifice, and with stone knives they sawed open their chests and drew out...
...It is a story of looks exchanged there in the plaza: my eyes blue as the horizon of the sixteenth century, her eyes black as the scalloped edge of the stone knife held ready to saw open the chest...
...He works as a high school librarian in Urbana, Illinois...
...A simple story: shoeless, maybe six years old, she holds out her hand, "Please buy it, mister"fifty pesos (not even a dime) for one gardenia which I buy...
...In the surf of that first island, Columbus' trinity of ships anchored against the sky...
...It is a simple story: in my hand money, in hers a flower: white handprints of death on doors, hands brown as coffee with milk, the bitter and the sweet...
...Poem The Exchange: Oaxaca, Mexico ...they placed them on some rather narrow stones which had been prepared as places for sacrifice, and with stone knives they sawed open their chests and drew out their palpitating hearts . . . -Bernal Diaz del Castillo The Discovery and Conquest of Mexico It is a simple story: I'm in Mexico drinking hot milk with coffee when a girl comes to my table with gardenias to sell...
...The meeting, the exchange the terms for peace...
...At this table in the plaza...
...His first manuscript, "Lonely Tombs, " is seeking a publisher...
...A simple story: one white gardenia bought, and the living rose beneath my ribs, beating and beating-scathed, unscathed...
...Matthew Murrey Matthew Murrey has been published in various journals and is the recipient of an NEA grant...
...At the gates of TenochtitlanMoctezuma trying to appease Cortes with a moon made of silver and a sun of hammered gold-just enough to keep his hot greed glowing...
Vol. 68 • March 2004 • No. 3
