Fandango

My wife and 14-year-old son
And I sit in the Mexico City
Airport waiting to fly home
After a few weeks as tourists,
Across from us are an American
Woman about 24 and her admiring
Young man who is Mexican.
She clings to him wearing his
Expensive leather jacket looking
Unsure how true his love is,
He appears to be a smooth
Operator and having wrung every
Cent possible from her is promising
To join her in the States as soon
As his papers are in order.
He points to a spot on her leather
Jacket and insists on taking it into
The adjacent men’s room to wash it
But neither he nor the jacket return,
She sends a boy in to find him but
He is gone and the fandango over.
She says that is not possible and
The child tells her there is a back
Door to the men’s room,
Her shock fades to bitterness
And heartbreak as she looks
Around for a shoulder to cry on.
She sits next to a 16-year-old
Young man in a fancy school jacket
And tie and weeps for an hour
Then sits by him in the plane
And weeps three more hours,
In the Houston airport we see them
Again as an irate mother peals the 16-year-old away from the still
Weeping young woman.
Our son turns to us and muses
That travel broadens the mind,
He winks and we are relieved his
Education had been helped by
Seeing how the drama life plays
Out and what to avoid and the
Value of chivalry both false
And real and a mother’s protective
Ire and how easily fooled the
Human heart can be when
Infatuation seems love.
A lesson not easily learned
At any age.