We Carry the Earth
by Dr. Grisel Y. Acosta
for Lights for Liberty/Families Belong
Together Vigil protesting U.S. concentration camps
We bring the harvest and lay
it at an altar
of bread crust, pierced gold
earrings, and the bones of our first born
Banana leaves halo the
foundation of her body,
we salt the sand she rests
upon, sprinkling the mineral from seashells
We pick translucent grapes
and squeeze the juice into our downturned
mouths, lay gardenias to
frame her death, perfume the pain within our muscles
You see a carcass of stone,
barren of life, bleached ossein,
we see the child that ran
between the Saguaros and wore red Matucana’s in her hair
*
Cognac woven leather wrapped
her brave feet as her toes tipped
sharp rock, skipped over
puddles bordering the desert on lucky rain days
White sun burned through
camisas de primos, sent to us del Norte,
worn threads unraveling with
each day of wear, cada dia without descanso or certainty
Black hair flying like
whipping palms, set aflight from much needed breezes
cooled café skin burning
cedar brown with each step on the red tawny dirt taking us closer
Cyan sky hovered over our
contorted path, twisted like a sapphire river
pooling into a sea of
compadres singing the blues at the frontera, asking, “¿Y de donde tu vienes?”
*
It must have been the cold
concrete holding her like
iron gate
choking her lungs into frozen
prayer, holding her breath
tight within grey mucus and
swollen sacs
bubbles of air that stopped
circulating, like language
words that fall dead on icy
ears.
*
mihcacocone
tlahquilli
tlamiz †
*
Se murio de neumonía.
There was no water.
There was no soap.
I was taken away from her.
Lloró en la mañana.
She called to me at 3 am.
I was not there.
You were not there.
We were not there.
We still are not there.
She will continue to cry her
song in wind until we are there.
A shriek in the current is
free to move, cross, fly beyond the flimsy delusion of barriers.
*
Her body will dust your land
which is my land which is our land
We do not carry danger to
your door
There is no door
There is no danger
There is only land
There is only earth
We carry this Earth on our
skin
We carry it in our lungs
We carry it as our body which
holds all bodies
Dirt from many tierras that are one tierra
We set it at an altar
We set you at the altar
We set ourselves at the altar
We set our firstborn at the
altar
See the altar
See the Earth
Come carry it with us
Carry the child
Carry the family
Carry the people who are your
people who are yourselves
You have been invited.
*
† The
words at the center of the poem are in the Nahuatl language. They mean “dead
children,” “tomb,” and “this will end.”
