Two Stairways

The first greets those who promenade
through the foyer to a sunken living room.

The steps--wide with carpeted tread--
ease along gilded panels

interrupted by staid portraits
of patriarchs long dead. Lips brush cheeks:

"besitos de cultura alto,"
as the gathering, elegant guests

follow the living room past
a massive dinner table. Walls

affixed with innocuous looking
ceramic buttons, doorbell fixtures

to summon the help from the kitchen
where hides a second staircase: steep, jagged,

and above all concrete. Servants--
rough hands wrapped in skin darker

than the mahogany furniture
they rub to a high shine--trudge

between floors carrying the weight
of meals, laundry, lemon water, and

impeceptible curses, indictments
triggered by those buzzing commands.

Meanwhile, quiet worms of hate
burrow deep into their hearts.