SUPPLY AND DEMAND
“Sell me five liters,” pleaded Prudencia,
whose mother needed the milk to make cheese
she sold every week to evangelists at a cooperative
farm. Alfonso shrugged, “The cows are on strike.”
In San Juan de la Vega, a banner hung from Town Hall
like a festoon. Benefit Dance. April Twelfth. Only Animals
With Feathers or Wings May Attend. Prudencia’s mother
was an unpredictable woman who would explode
at minutiae. But this morning she woke at dawn
in an exceptional humor. Prudencia knew
the anguish the news of the shortage would cause.
Alfonso looked at his cows. They were black
with white patches on their faces. They grazed
and they ambled, how simple their life was.