14

(In progress)

Brown love 

Sos mi vuelo y mi cielo 

El mar y la tierra que hábito

El más profundo suspiro y el más dulce susurro 

El sonido de mi risa y el sentido de una caricia 

El calor de nuestro amor 

El color de nuestros ojos y nuestra piel 

13

(In progress) 

Brujería 

In my mother's family,

Brujería is a family heirloom

Women die young of diseases that eat us from the inside

After spending lifetimes healing others

Loving others

Welcoming others into this life 

And we live(d)

Casting spells over pots and pans

Creating recipes for curing broken hearts

And bodies

For breaking hearts

And bodies 

And we drive men mad. 

Is it the gait of our walk?

Like curtains swaying with spirits hiding behind them

Or the ringing of our laugh?

Like a bell calling forth all the demons that men have

But don't like to name 
Who come out to suffocate that laughter

We let broken men between our legs

But no spell is strong enough 

To patch shattered glass

I've come from a line of hurt women too long

And read too many books

To not believe in the power held in our

Ovarios

Our matrices 

I've eaten too many bowls of caldo and plates of mole 

And peeled too many chiles and kneaded too much maíz

Not to believe that our brujería

Is our legacy 

Our means of survival 

That the recipes we passed down

Hold secrets,

Like the codex of the Mexica people,

Only to be translated by those hearts

That know

12

oil

pivotal moment:

warriors, protectors fight against it in
the north

your hands, covered in it, caress me in
the south

embedded deep in your fingerprints,
and across this land

i lost the battle against it,
i pray they do not

11

i am blood
and fire
goddess of healing
and war
cut you with my right hand
place flowers in the wound with my left
the gatekeeper of your ecstasy
and the sigh that leaves your tormented chest

--amor del bueno

10

in tears,
i find the stones
for the bridge
i build back to myself

one less tear i have to cry
one less cord tying me to pain
one less millimeter of dagger in my heart

9

i fear bearing children
because i do not want
my womb
to be the only
safe place
they will ever know


-----


some cultures believe
that our hair
stores memory;
is it any wonder then
that hair can only be
destroyed
if you burn it?

8

like
mangoes
cactus

i have evolved
my exterior
to protect
my interior

skin full of poison oil
skin covered in spikes
skin that will hurt you

flesh that delights
flesh that is sweet
flesh that is precious