She wasn’t an actress
But she spent a lifetime
Learning her lines
The delicate ones near her eyes
Were from laughter
They matched those you’d notice
Right after framing her mouth
Like dimples but deeper
The line of her sight
That was lost with age
Everything close faded
But an eagle eye for far away
The line of her questioning
Each time things didn’t add up
She questioned too much
For his own good
The lines on her hand
That a fortune teller once told her
Would bring her sadness
And three children
He couldn’t afford
The line in the sand she’d drawn
Before he’d moved on
The ones she waited in
For food stamps and charity
Under the microscope of better born
No, she was no actress
But she knew her lines
The line of her favorite dress
Still falling like it did
When she was no more than a kid
Over angular bones, taut skin
Never enough her to fill it
But feeling it filled her to full
She knew the lines of her family
Where they bent and broke
Where they dropped off the side
Of that old family tree
And exactly where she belonged
She knew her lines alright,
“Yes ma’am” and “No sir”
Because everyone was better
Than she felt
She had spent a lifetime
Memorizing her lines
She sang them in her sleep
It was the only place she dreamed
The lines under her eyes
Tattling her exhaustion
The only one she didn’t know
What the one that would come
Just before
The end.
© 2013 Nicole Marie Vilencia
