A lady was hit, and Charleton Heston was Moses, varnished dark in the Egyptian sun.

The Promised Land

1.       Around two o’clock, I walk past a store selling plastic items.

2.       There are red buckets, yellow buckets, blue tarps, nylon rope.

3.       I am unwrapping the foil from a melting chocolate bar.

4.       A melon vendor naps in the shadow of his cart.

5.       In the street, a red Dodge Ram brakes, skidding.

6.       A woman, approximately fifty-eight, is caught in its lane.

7.       She is hammered chest-high by the screaming truck.

8.       Her torso appears to hug the contour of the grill.

9.       The truck grips the asphalt finally, casting the woman forward.

10.    She slides on her back, shoulders first, past the plastic store.

11.    Her movement is graceful, as if across a sheet of ice.

12.    It is Good Friday in Poza Rica, Veracruz.

13.    I drop my chocolate bar into my left pants pocket.

14.    The plastic salesman begins dialing the phone.

15.    I watch the first droplet of blood fall from behind her ear.

16.    Her eyes are closed.  She has beautiful, brown skin.

17.    There is an odor of burnt rubber amid the street’s black heat.

18.    “Señora,” I whisper, “todo será bien.”

19.    “Todo será bien, Señora.”

20.    I stroke the soft underneath of her wrist while telling her this.

21.    Ten or twelve people assemble.  One crosses himself.

22.    Someone collects her bag of rice and places it at her head.

23.    A faint siren becomes clear, then blares close.

24.    “Todo será bien,” is all that I can say.

25.    I walk out from the encircled who have gathered here today.

26.    The sun sears the afternoon in a yellow, blinding haze.

27.    Walking until the highway, I become soaked in sweat.

28.    I stop to rest inside a church with doors swung wide open.

29.    Workmen are draping the cross with a sheet.

30.    Swelled feet slip from my shoes to the cool floor.

31.    Their steam makes patterns on the dark green marble.

32.    I sneak bites of cheap chocolate from my pocket.

33.    The Virgin is transferred from a nave to the steps of the altar.

34.    Men move over her with cleaning rags.

35.    Down the highway, I buy a ticket for the movies.

36.    I settle in with Mike & Ike’s to see The Greatest Story Ever Told.

37.    It is the desert, ages past.  Thank God there is air conditioning.

38.    Charlton Heston is Moses, varnished dark in the Egyptian sun.

39.    And he leads his people to the Promised Land.

40.    Into the Promised Land.