Calla Lilies


The student, a mediocre athlete,
a women’s volleyball player,
unattractive by any measure
joined the others in their discussion
of Rivera’s “Flower Vendor.” 
 
“Why is the woman in the picture on her knees?” 
one student asked.  “It is as if she
is carrying the weight of the world,
a socialist’s message, no doubt, the
lily is symbolic of the purity of the worker,”
another answered,  and a third said,
“She’s just old and tired.”
 
The woman’s head is bowed, the weight
of the wicker basket could not be so much,
and what it held, those lilies whose petals
are among the lightest of visible things,
why then was she in such a pose, and after a moment
the otherwise unnoticeable student said,
“Beauty is too great a burden to bear.”