A picture found in the old trash heap. 

A mother and child quietly

peruse it together. 

Little girl or perhaps boy,

hard to tell beneath the dirty uniform

and still dirtier skin and hair asked, 

Momma, what is that? 

 

That’s a piano dear,

you knew that. 

 

The child pointed

to the area beneath, around 

and all over the picture. 

A sighing mother explained

they were grasses, trees and bushes 

the way it used to be. 

And that funny color, Momma?

 

Astonished, anguished eyes

look down into the aged eyes

of her very young child. 

 

Green my child, the color green. 

We don’t have that down here.

She wondered if anyone was listening.