Protest signs never scared her.
never
hid the intentions of hands and faces
never
hid the places she'd seen them before.

Over-ripened scowls always
had pasts,
grimaced
besides wives and pastors as young women wept to hospital beds.

Mary couldn't help but search the crowds
find
Johns who knew their money was being spent there.
standing next to
unknowing wives crying
“whore”
too loud to hear whimpers of familiarity
intimate details
of the pillars besides them.

Mary didn't need to hear tales
remembered
the stain of blood, the
tears spent
figuring out which was worse
life
or death.

Esteban Colon is the author of Things I Learned the Hard Way. A Pushcart Nominee, he is a founding member of the W4tB poetry collective, a Poetry Bomb site organizer, and a performer who has featured all over Chicago and Southern Wisconsin. His work has appeared in a variety of journals, anthologies and chapbooks including but not limited to: Revise the Psalm, Prairie Gold, This Frankenstein Union, After Hours, and Rhino Magazine.