you were
told to wear clothes
and given
rags to hide your beautiful nakedness
the beings
of the forest no longer knew you
scent of
water soil and green buried in the sweat of the coerced
an acrid
odor
fetid like
swamp and all the most delicious prey know
to flee
deeper into the shadows that fall across your eyes
buried
dreams speak as loud as innocence lost
as loud as murder
you were
given food and you were grateful
belly
swollen
stick limbs
you saw
your brothers waste and die
turn grey
no dark
mahogany coffee cream-soda chocolate burnished skin
just pitted
with death and foam at their mouths
no voices
left to cry for
just one sip
just one bite
your
mother’s shrunken breasts, her salt tears
she had no
chance to save them
are you the lucky one?
the stories
in your eyes are nightmares
piercing
the lies we tell ourselves in worlds of plenty
it can’t happen here
the sadness
fear and anger eyes of betrayal
you work to
pay for all that was free in grandmother’s time
your father
held you to the sky in one brief moment of joy
another nick in the wall of
eternity
before the
rains dried up and the grasses turned to brown
receded
down to dust that rises
coats your
skin and chokes your throat
the cycle
of the bees broken
no more
milk no honey
your
mother’s breasts are barren
cold
and help
arrives to steal your mind
the price
of food and land that used to be yours
you were
churched and schooled enough
to pray for
the success of what destroyed you
you spoke
to me with tortured eyes
you demanded
more and, not given
turned in
upon yourself
the anomie
of unanswered Want
the empty
depth that hardens
ages
breaks you
the atoms
of your death can’t even feed the hungry earth
no water
we’ve
changed the planet to fit a mold
cast by a
being no one has seen or heard
except in
dreams or visions
and still
you stare with ancient eyes
your urgent
aching songs unheard
we lost
your ripe juicy lips and cheeks
your golden
dark
your sturdy limbs
the center
of your spinning galaxies
yet songs
like molten honey burn and seduce
sun eye
unblinded by the night
and like the sun
you rise
