
“Grandmother earth, I brought you this; keep it safe for me.”
(Chatinos deYaitepec, Oaxaca)
I
Because I did not find your body
I will lay my flowers where I planted your navel.
II
I offer you our placenta
“o grandmotherearth.” They have robbed us of our dreams!
III
They uprooted the tree from the soil.
I can feel the weeping of the lifeless placenta.
IV
My children once went fishing for birds.
Who imprisoned their visions in padlocks and in chains?
V
The farm is abandoned and alone.
When my child was born, offerings of bread rained down.
VI
I carried him upon my shoulders.
I swear to you: he was neither the bird nor the wind.
VII
Forty-three desperate women search
They’re combing the empty ditches and gutters for shells.
VIII
Thousands of lamenting women croon
“Sleep, my love, and dream— to escape…
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