how many coins do we have? you count and I’ll see; call out as you count, tell me how much exactly; and then how many days it will take us to…Little Boy with his crutches can buy a new one, maybe and a new shawl for mama… throw it, one coin against the other as you count; I love to hear the clink of coins…ha, ha – you know, sometimes I even lick a coin to see if it’s pure…mama says I’d get sick if I did that…yeah, certainly not as sweet on the tongue as the grapes and fruit we sell, but certainly tastes well to me in my mind have you another coin in the other palm? this day a Lord’s servant bought some grapes in the street corner; she said it was for her master’s table, and our grapes were glowing and fresh much as what her master loves…and she was kind to me… did you count the other coin? sometimes I wonder, you know, how many coins we will need till the end of our lives, like to the time, say, when Old Boko died last autumn – how many coins will it take to see us to that moment? Yes, and of course, how many grapes would we need to sell to collect that amount?
poem based on the painting “The Little Fruit Seller” by MURILLO, Bartolomé Esteban (b. 1617, Sevilla, d. 1682, Sevilla)