Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
Michael McMahonSeptember 22, 2008

With sleep in her eyes she parts the curtain,
sees the black van and three strange men.


Standing on tiptoe in woolen pajamas
she raps at the window, sees him drive off
with three strange men.

They’ve come to the farm in a dusty van,
found him at work on the fence out back,
sat him between them and drove the lane
scattering stones and dirt.

In blue pajamas with padded feet
she runs to the phone and tells the “O”
Papá’s been taken away in a van
from where she lives with the broken chair
and chicks in the yard and he fell down
running away from three strange men.

All alone in a quiet house she holds
on tight to a blanket end
to keep her safe from the raging wind
and the angry shouts of three strange men.

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.

The latest from america

McCarrick had been removed from ministry at the direction of the Vatican in June 2018 due to a credible allegation of sexual abuse of a teenager investigated by the Archdiocese of New York.
Jay Sefton in ‘Unreconciled’ (barebones theater company)
”Unreconciled” looks abuse, disregard and callousness in the eye and witnesses instead to radical kindness.
Elise L. RyanApril 04, 2025
‘A Man Escaped’ is a story of a man seeking temporal salvation, but Robert Bresson’s film takes on deeper meaning, becoming a parable of the Spirit.
John DoughertyApril 04, 2025
The thought of losing Pope Francis one day is a hard one for me to grapple with; I know my reasons why. What surprised me was how many of my non-Catholic friends, even those whose feelings toward the church are decisively negative, also expressed their care and concern.
Molly CahillApril 04, 2025