Sleeping (the family)                                                                      José Clemente Orozco, 1930

“Painting…it persuades the heart.” (Orozco)

My eye is drawn first to the blue,

most radiant hue

robing this woman, a mother,

in warmth, the color of Mary

she is turned toward the father, his face bathed in heavenly light

asleep on the earthen floor of this makeshift shelter

Soft folds of blanket envelope them

where they lie together

two exhausted parents

too exhausted to hear the song of their daughter

wide awake now,

lullabying a song she learned from them

as they moved from field to field

carrying pots of clay, red as the earth

How did she come to be,

this beautiful child, the color of the earth they work,

the earth they love?

What joy, what migrant passion called her forth

to walk beside them in the light and sing a night song

unafraid