Amor Prohibido



© 2005 Katherine Williams
"Amor Prohibido" appears in
Java Monkey Speaks: A Poetry
Anthology, Volume II

Kodac Harrison and Collin Kelley, Eds.
Atlanta:  Poetry Atlanta Press (2006)



was it the way the north wind gave voice to
the palm timbales and gumtree cymbals,
salt spray bearing tortilla and fish-stink
up to our third rooftop music lesson

or the way we had gone from shop to shop
on the field trip to San Ysidro,
trying to find a papier-mâché mermaid
since they lose so much in translation

or the ancient waitress at that tiki dive
on Hollywood Boulevard, expertly
lowering the torch so I wouldn’t miss
the fine print on your halo in the dark

or when gypsies howled our lawless tango,
you wanting me green, how my dead mother
kept whispering never give in or the
margarita kiss that ended all that