I WILL NEVER FORGET THE WAY OUR FACE LIT UP

We ran for our lives from the burning maze,
and the bullets smacked the walls of the alley
and the tear gas filled our lungs and bits
of sheet metal and tusk cut our bare feet.
I will never forget the way our face lit up
the morning the seperatists took the maze,
the morning we made our escape.

They didn’t offer us water.
Remember how in the dark together
we sealed burned sheets of aluminum foil?
We balanced these delicate, leaking vessels upon
our heads as on the banks we stood,
the wash jammed with the swollen carcasses
of black pelicans, victims that ate hardened,
antifreeze-douzed grease till their bellies tripled
and they floated away.

Behind the slaughterhouse, on the sides
of the broken down livestock were scrawled oaths.
Let us remember these oaths:

The only oath I can remember is Quedame en Richmond.
It being a time of revolution water was scarce.
It being a time of revolution there were separtists.
I can still see you skipping a step to jump
over the unlucky shoes that filled the streets.
I can remember another oath:
Peter has a small dick, and he uses it for bait.

Now let us bow with our face to the curb,
and our nose to the asphalt:

Dear Lord why is it today the clouds are laced
with gold and the valley is filled with smoke?
Do you remember how together in the dark

we sealed burned sheets of aluminum foil?
Do you remember how we balanced the delicate,
leaking vessels upon our heads? As children we ran
naked through the streets. As old women we grab
at water skins held above our heads. I do not think
we are really old women. We might not have been
children really at all. Dear tree please humble us.
Dear wire please warn us, then warm us, then go on.
Until then.

leaking vessels upon our heads?
As children we ran naked through the streets.
As old women we grab at water skins held above our heads.
I do not think we are really old women.
We might not have been children really at all.
Dear tree please humble us.
Dear wire please warn us,
then warm us, then go on.
Until then.