Penelope on the Subway
I got on in the south.
She was knitting.
I watched how we
were watching her knit.
She had us tied to the thread
that came and went from her fingers
to the needles.
She didn't look at us.
She knit our eyes with the thread
between her fingers.
When I got off,
she stayed on.
Oh! Weaver of eyes,
where are you now?
Original version published in Lahoja, a
Spanish-language poetry paper, in the 90s.
La Guerra del Agua
In Cochabamba, Bolivia
a seventeen year old boy
was shot in the face
by the army. He was protesting
the increase in water rates.
This is as far away
from poetry
as you can get.
It's about water,
and a student,
and people,
and water.
Writer's Statement
Writing is a sailing between the shores of two oceans.
Elsa Frausto lives in the foothills of the San
Gabriel mountains. She was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina,
and has lived in Canada, Mexico City, Yucatan and Oregon.
She received a B.A. in Slavic Studies from UCLA and now
teaches in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in many journals, including
Indefinite Space, Lahoja, La Opinion, La Porte des Počtes.
She co-authored the Spine Flower Blues Anthology and
published Night Birds ( an anthology of Chuparosa
poems). She has coordinated and hosted the Word of Mouth
poetry reading series at the Sunland-Tujunga Branch Library.
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