The Stomach and The Eyes

There came a man in a foreign place.

His skin was milky and his eyes were blue.

The foreign place was wide and dry.

Not a breeze in the air and nothing but the sun in the sky.

The sun made sure they knew it was there, too.

The man went through the foreign place.

He chopped down trees, he dug up dirt.

He muttered to himself everyday.

The blue eyed man came across a woman in a mud house.

He said to her, “Hey woman. Where the diamonds be?”

The woman chuckled and chewed and chuckled. “Where you think they be, sir man?”

“I’ll give you money for them.”

“What the money buy?” The woman scoffed.. “It buy diamonds?”

The man cursed her and left.

The next day, the blue eyed man came across a little girl. “Hey girl. Where the rubies lay?”

She giggled and shook her head. “Where you think they be, mister?”

“I’ll give you food for them.”

“What you gonna eat?” She grinned. “You eat rubies?”

The man left with a grumble.

The next day, the white man again found someone — two sisters and a grandmother.

“Hey you lot,” the man yelled. “Where the pearls at?”

The two sisters looked at one another then spoke to their grandmother in a tongue the blue-eyed man did not know.

Slowly, she nodded and said something back.

“No,” one sister whispered, but the other said, “She told us to tell him.”

“Tell me what?” The man squinted.

“The pearls…” the sister reluctantly stated. “The pearls be ‘round your neck.”

The man looked down at himself. 

He was adorned head to toe in large blue and white diamonds, red rubies the size of grapefruits, and strings upon strings of pearls. When the sun hit him, he shined like God was supposed to.

The man cursed at the women. “You lot are good for nothin’! I’m not talking about those pearls. 

I’m talkin’ about yours.”