Tres Leches

Tres Leches

I.

I bake a tres leches
for the Mother's Day feast,
cold, grainy, milky,moist,
a last, sweet promise
to my gathering family
that I can still nurse them
with the wisdom of God,
though my breasts are dry,
my belly slack.


II.


Hours before, I stood
sweltering in the Florida humidity,
silently witnessing for peace,
meditating on what change
I can effect in the world,
watching a teen-age mother
wipe dandelion milk
from her toddler's sticky fingers.


III.


Now, at twilight, the grandchildren and I,
dance ring-around-the-rosie
splashing in the pool
as we all fall down
under the Milky Way.
My daughter sits cross-legged
beneathe the budding red-orange poinciana
suckling her youngest.
Above, I hear the humming
of all my great, silent grandmothers
streaming through the heavens.




Author's Note: A tres leches is a Mexican dessert made with three milks. I borrowed shamelessly from Katya the Poet ...after her poem of the same title..."Invalid Item" ....although the themes are quite different.


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