Two Pictures

a poem by Roger B Rueda

for Angelice

I.
A dark boy about all of four with round face
and straight and long hair
is wearing a loincloth
of pounded bark,
his teeth glistening at the flash
of the camera,
a petal of red hibiscus
behind his left ear,
cups of Korean noodles
on the bench.

II.
A Korean girl about all of five,
two dark girls wearing a coil
of woven coconut husks
about their hips and flanking
her on the bench, one of them
hugging her puppy tightly
to her chest, is
gently caressing its ear
as her mother
is photographing the Chocolate Hills.