DICTIONARY OF EMOTIONS

When he took the meaning out of things,

she embraced the religion of sadness.

When he closed his dictionary of emotions,

she thought there was something wrong

with her body. Maybe she was getting fat

or something like that.

She used to search for her own imperfections

as he opened the morning paper silently almost

every day.

She blamed herself for the sudden changes.

One day she bent with the burden of his indifference.

-but it was just one day-

Then she got used to her white existence.

She imagined herself as tree that was pruned by a skilled gardener.

A beautiful tree that could have grown ninety feet tall or more on the

side of a mountain.

But somehow she was a just small domestic tree now.

She cried.

It was autumn again in her heart.

Karla Bardanza