I want to write
About being silenced & scrutinized
& at risk, but do it like Darwin’s daughter.
In my dreams, jeweled words wrangle sense & image.
Sun-shot thought champions dissent, but anything I say can and will be
used against me.
Grackles become witches, conjure brilliance and cajole
brutes along the way, their black bird reflections winged
pools of evanescent jet.
The path ahead is made of rubies
each stone a drop of my own blood. Oxygen molecules glow
like gems in each live hemoglobin racing through veins of sky.
Where is the vigor of astringency, the vinegar homilies
to warn of Cassandra’s oblivion?
Where are the bereaved
clad in weeds of aubergine and black?
In the garden there is a skein of broken limbs,
bound for burial. Avert your eyes and pray for solace, the sweet
bitterness of grapefruit marmalade that wrenches
a tongue from slumber.
The dead reach out across the desert
burned like bricks by the enemy sun
Beyond the corpses
a litter of bottles emptied of life
make a trail to the border with its gaudy signs
Down the highway
a panel truck hides its contraband behind a locked door
Inside the odor of bodies warns the night sky
to open its arms to death’s bounty
The desert stretches
like a merciless sea of boiled blood waiting for the coming sun
Only the desperate
believe the lies of the coyote
(Coyote tricked the Holy Ones out of their fire
and gave it to the People along with this scorched earth)
Somewhere the names of workers are written
like beads between fingers
Somewhere fields still and quiet
wait for dead hands to harvest poisoned fruit
Donna Snyder is the founder and coordinator of El Paso's Tumblewords Project, which has been presenting creative writing workshops and performance events in the Texas/New Mexico/Chihuahua border region since 1995. She has been a featured performer at literary events throughout the Border region, and has published in a variety of small magazines including Puerto Del Sol, NuCity, Sin Fronteras, and Chrysalis. Since 1980, Snyder has worked as an advocate for indigenous peoples, immigrants, farm workers, garment workers, and people with mental or physical disabilities.