She Waits Among the Pottery and Rugs, by Jackie Langetieg

An Egyptian Pot Seller at Gizeh, by Elisabeth Jerichau Baumann (Denmark, b. Poland) 1878

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She Waits Among the Pottery and Rugs

She waits among the pottery and rugs, pensive,
staring at the two strangers with her father.
Neither has looked at her but she knows they
bargain. 
 
Tariq has built a thriving business in Cairo
with pottery, rugs and her lovely glowing body.
She knows the importance of her sensuality,
knows soon her price will be exacted.
 
At home, her family labours in clay and yarn
to supply the Cairo business. From dawn 
to dusk, the markets make gineih for their
owner, his family receiving nothing—not
 
even praise for their beautiful work. They
are given shekels for ingredients but
nothing for themselves except when one
of the daughters begins to see the beauty--
 
then, that young girl becomes the woman
of the family, traveling with her father for 
helping at the bazaar and soon becoming
inventory for the man from Cairo.

Jackie Langetieg

Jackie Langetieg has published poems in literary magazines: Verse Wisconsin, The Ekphrastic Review, Bramble Blue Heron Review. She’s won awards, such as WWA’s Jade Ring contest, Bards Chair, and Wisconsin Academy Poem of the Year. She is a regular contributor to the Wisconsin Poets’ Calendar. She has written five books of poems,  including Letter to My Daughter and a memoir, Filling the Cracks with Gold.