Dried Corazón, and: Rituals
- Dried Corazón, and: Rituals
Dried Corazón
i have a desert in my corazónbent like an accordion
a dry old desert with reptileclaws that tear my guts
a whole field of burnt nopaleslive in my corazón
someone old used glass shardsto carve in los nopales' corazonesthe names of their dead
i have a desert in my corazónlittered with dead pollos'scorpses and names
i bear a whole dried up desertin my corazón that swallowsall my tears every time i die; [End Page 66]
Rituals
tell all the birds on this earthi washed father's corpsewith water and ashes
tell all the birdsall the praying and keeninghave ended, tell them
Mother no longer gives awayrice candy to the skinny childrenwho prayed like hypnotizedfrogs every evening for father
tell all the birds, i carriedfather's corpse to his cornfields
i left him over a dry stonenext to a gourd full of waterand a handful of pigeon corazones
tell all of the birds on this earthfather is waitingfor their claws and beaks
tell them they can all comedown and feed on father's corpse; [End Page 67]
Gerardo Pacheco Matus is a Mayan Native. Pacheco was awarded the Joseph Henry Jackson Award and has also received fellowships from Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, CantoMundo, The Frost Place, and Macondo. Pacheco's poems, essays, and short fiction have appeared and are forthcoming from the Grantmakers in the Arts, Apricity Press, Haight Ashbury Literary Journal, the Packinghouse Review, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, West Branch Wired, Four Way Review, the Cortland Review, Nashville Review, Pilgrimage Magazine, Memorious, Tin House, Play on Words, Anomaly Press, Peripheries Journal, and Apogee, among others. Pacheco is currently a tenured professor at Cañada College.
