This is from “Always a Reckoning” by Jimmy Carter. I really treasure this book. Some of the poems make me uncomfortable, some make me sad or angry. This one in particular makes me feel peculiar. Wistful?
Priorities of Some Mexican Children
A sign was leaning toward adobe shacks
back from the road, across a dry plateau.
LLANOS it read, the same as our Plains.
When we stopped to photograph the view
three blackhaired children hurried down a path
shouting something, eager to be heard.
“Get out your pocketbooks,” I said,
“I can guess the word.”
When they got closer, we could tell it was not dinero but
lápiz and papel.
What would it take for our own children to value education so highly?
dinero = money; lápiz = pencil; papel = paper