Take off your shoes!
This is for the mothers of El Salvador.
Lower your voice;
they have heard all these sounds before.
Listen,
listen to the winds of the mountains
the calls of owls and torogoz birds.
Turn off your motor; the children need air.
The mothers
their breasts have fed generations,
their feet have walked us into life.
Take off your shoes!
These Maya,
they remember it all.
They have come from the deep green
halls
The walls of history.
They—
They are the continuing mystery
The question, the answer.
They knock on your doors.
Answer them—but first
Take off your shoes!
Anthony Adrian (Tony) Pino
teaches English at Ohlone College and San Jose City College. He travels often and was recently inspired to write "Take Off Your Shoes" in a trip to El Salvador, where, he observed, the mothers of that country seemed to hold it together. He has been married 42 years to Judy Rausch of Fremont, CA, has two grown children, Petra and Mark, a dazzling granddaughter named Sophia, and two arrogant cats. He has masters degrees from George Washington University and Cal State East Bay. He is devoted to prayer, poetry and fiction—and two arrogant cats.