“Somali Shopping for Organic Figs” by James Tate

I was walking out of the health food store

and into the parking lot when something powerful

and strange stopped me dead in my tracks. A woman

dressed from head to toe in a black veil, a bui-bui,

I believe it’s called in Arabic, stood stock-still,

alone, tall, only her eyes showing, but oh what eyes,

like bits of onyx set in virgin snow. A panther would

have been less shocking than this woman. Everyone

who saw her just stopped and stared. Normal manners

didn’t seem to apply to this situation. She was

the most beautiful woman I had ever seen, and yet,

I saw nothing but those eyes. Perhaps she was stricken

in terror. Children walked right up to her and stood

staring in awe. It felt like some tremendous mistake.

But maybe she was only dreaming, and we were dreaming

along with her. It was a cruel dream, the kind that

changes you forever, and waking from it was strictly

forbidden. Her bui-bui was made in Heaven, the blackest

corner of it.