Homestay in Cusco, Peru

by Suzanne Roberts

Juanna is seventeen, has worked
for this family since her new papa
married her mama, didn’t want her.
Or her sisters. She is lucky, they tell me.
She cooks and cleans, but smiles
with eyes tired of a sightless faith.
She watches the other children
leave for school, go out dancing with friends,
eat meals with me while she waits
until everyone has finished, eats alone only
after washing the dishes. She listens
to the real daughter tell me she wants
to go to New York, because of the women
in Sex in the City. I tell her in my broken Spanish,
Not very many American women
are like Carrie Bradshaw or Samantha Jones,
causing her to pout and declare, "I will never
ask you anything else." Disappointed,
she marches from the room, leaves her dinner.
So I finish eating alone, and Juanna tells me
she’s glad about the women in America,
had believed the same thing about Sex in the City.
Then she tells me she’s lost
one of her sisters, says, "We don’t know
where she is." Says, "It is so hard
to be the oldest," leans on her mop, having seen
already with an old woman’s eyes,
her braids tied together with yarn.