Poem by Alma Luz Villanueva (USA/Mexico)

Published in The Ofi Press issue 49

Dear World, Dear IxChel, Dear Merlin...    

Merlin passes mi casita

numerous times a day, his

Aztec profile makes me

smile, his Toltec

passengers at ease, they

trust him not to take

them to the sacrificial

altar, the Priest who

would rip their beating

hearts from their chests,

offer such Life to the

Aztec Sun, IxChel

replaced with blood

thirsty gods, birth

blood, that warrior

act of creating  Life,

replaced with taking Life,

we've entered that

Time again, the blood

thirsty gods/Muslim/

Christian/Simple Greed

rips the beating hearts,

such Life, that rots,

melts into Madre

Tierra's Womb, She

remembers each one, the

stories each heart

holds, cell by cell,

She remembers,

and Merlin does

his daily job

so sweetly.

        *        *        *

USA drones targeting the

enermy, collateral damage,

grandmother picking dinner in

her garden, children

playing soccer, father

driving taxi, woman

carrying child in her

sacred womb, collateral

damage, collateral

damage, in Iran they

execute poets, visionaries,

women who love from

choice/heart, buried to

the neck, stoned to their

loving deaths, in the

Congo soldiers rape

babies, cut them out of

their mother's ripe

wombs, laughing, Isis

sells young women, 8 year

old girls sexual slaves

reward their soldiers,

murder their fathers, sons,

brothers, husbands by

the thousands, Israel

keeps Palestine in their

concentration camps,

USA school to prison,

highest for profit

prison system in the

world, men/women of

color gunned down in

the streets, hung in

jail cells, girls of

rape denied abortion

Latin America, corrupt

Mexico/Latin American

countries (funded USA School

Of The Americas, activists

murdered, 43 Mexican

student teachers tortured,

murdered, journalists murdered)...

I must pause to think/re-member

the zillions of human

daily kindnesses where

IxChel, Coatlique, Quan Yin,

Tara, Oya, Changing Woman

continue to live, La Virgen

over the door of

mi casita, painted the

color of fire, where

I live, dream,

dream, live

as Merlin

drives by

so sweetly.

        *        *        *

Older women, men, pause

to bless themselves, mi

casita of fire, La Virgen,

IxChel over my door, they

re-mind me of the

Sacred we create,

must create daily, I

know the beauty of

the wild Sierras, forest,

glacier lake, scent of

pine/cedar, coyote calls,

where my wolf dog

ran free, his song to

the Full Moon, never

barked, he was not my

pet- ally, friend, dream

shifter- I pray

dear World, dear IxChel,

that my future children,

this Earth, find the

wild Sierras, forests,

glacial lakes, re-member

how to dream shift,

bless themselves, each

other, never/ever know

the meaning of war and

that they re-invent

the act of Creation, to

create the sacred

daily, one thousand

years from now, to

be magicians of

el alma/the soul,

to live each

day, this Earth,

so sweetly.