Breakfast

She wore a red coat
As she crossed four busy lanes
Leading the boys
To the bright yellow taqueria
Her hair like red twigs
Her body long and lean
The boys with stiff black hair
Like dark stacks of hay
Bent this way and that

Going for a breakfast
Of eggs, potatoes, and beef
Wrapped in a flour tortilla
Before school

The yellow building
Like a lone flower
In a field of dead things
Perched, small and precarious
Beside something brick and faded,
A building with a sign
Advertising cash loans

A road, unforgiving
Between the buildings
Between the girl and the boys
Between all of that

Skin like bronze
Eyes like brown fire
They hand over a dollar-fifty
Grab their goods
Dash like mad
To make it across,
Make it inside
before 7:05