“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…