Punishment
7 poems that tell a story inspired by my time in Chile
Breath The tree inhales 1 2 3 4 The tree exhales 2 3 4 The human inhales 2 3 4 Hold 2 3 4 Exhale 2 3 4 Inhale 2 3 4 Hold 2 3 4 Breathe 2 3 4 The flora exhale so that the fauna can inhale Perhaps it’s the other way around Breath lights the flame that allows for this tale As each organism inhales 2 3 4 And exhales 2 3 4 Flora and Fauna Cacao fruit and farm workers who pull and sew Sugar cane and Spanish conquistadors Ceiba trees and indigenous spirituality All evolve together in one kaleidoscope of chance It is all one strange, beautiful cycle of inhales and exhales Life and death Laughter and wails Chaos and silence Barefoot amongst the trees, we watch you Snapping branches with the heels The forest is quiet, but never silent You wear shoes to separate yourself from the natural While wearing a cross to connect with the supernatural Not realizing that they’re all the same You’re depraved and have an internal longing To be part of something bigger than yourself To be barefoot is a reminder that you already were This forest is quiet Never silent Rivers dance Wind breathes Canaries sing above Flight I was born in darkness and fright, crammed in a hard shell Then darkness became cracks of light poking, poking Fright became curiosity and movement Crammed became exposed, wet, and cold And hungry!!! I cried out to the universe never knowing anything except this hunger Famine! Starvation! Feed me!!! I beg, I cry, I realize that I am not alone as three others squirm around me Starving featherless creatures desperate for consumption The smallest of us lies nearby too pathetic to cry out She will be dead in minutes Then mother comes and opens her beak above me Satisfaction came next and heat and love Then flight!!! Mother opened her arms and propelled above us and disappeared into the trees The first time I learned to fly, I learned how to breathe Sloppy breathes makes one fall to their death You must breathe rapidly and controlled as you catch the wind 1 2 1 2 1 2 1.. Don’t fall!!! 1 2 I didn’t fall I flew I didn’t fly I fluttered, then I soared The forest was there with me the whole time inhaling on my exhale We say grace to each other Them so they have movement to watch, entertained And I have the proper breath to catch flight Prophecy (August 1973, Vicuña, Chile) Good traveler, you have come to my shop seeking counsel Do you wish that I advise you on how to cope or how to prosper? This is a land where condors prey on the weak Rodents eat their young Your own kind starve in the street Equality is preached, but each knows deep down that The people lose each time Death is the only equal treatment of our universe This tale is an unstoppable one. The machine’s pulleys and wheels have already began to turn Your country will be a bloodbath soon Soldiers will march the streets Communists will be shot Women will be raped by dogs And homosexuals will be thrown from planes Then there will be prosperity A new order will come to this land The clutching of the hand on the famished stomach will Become a salute towards a God man tyrant A speech will become a gunshot The gunshot will turn to chaos Chaos will turn to silence Then silence will become discipline Your country will become the most economically advanced Of your depressed continent Your politicians will ignore how the top 1% carry half the country’s wealth No one will care as long as your capital flourishes and becomes Modern Overcoming Neoliberal Globalized Successful Competitive In time it will all make sense- Mierda!!!! A canary has been watching us this whole time One of mother nature’s spies!!! Conspiring against my prophecy You wish, man, to be separated from her wrath We think that to be human is a gift We believe that the supernatural separate us from nature Modernism is our religion and human is our punishment We say human is better But human is punishment I must cast a spell… ZAP That canary was a spy of mother nature, you hear? She would spill our secrets of how your success will bring Drought Deforestation Pollution But it will all have been worth it, for you my friend, will prosper greatly Human I was born in darkness and fright, crammed in a little ball of long limbs Then darkness became eyes struck open in terror Fright became curiosity and movement Crammed became exposed and cold And pensive A storm of thoughts flashing, thundering Self awareness is a curse Fear is wrath Beauty is vanity My skin is dark and goose fleshed The man The witch The prophecy My flock does not recognize me The water’s reflection is a mirror of unknown intellect For the first time in my life I know that it will all come to an end someday My fate will be equal to my sister’s who could never fill her stomach Everything that makes the world makes sense Evolution Life Death God Wisdom Power Makes no difference to my heart, which aches to be feral wilderness again Ignorance is freedom Knowledge is punishment The world is too expansive for my mind and my heart I wish to fly to the ends of the earth and confront my mortality each time I long to flutter and swoop and dance and weep Instead I stand still, gazing into the water’s mirror A rippling photograph of someone I don’t know The Spy “In all my work with Central Intelligence, I have never seen witchcraft. Let me help you.” “Do you recognize yourself when you look in the mirror?” “I recognize an American who wants to save a country from itself.” “What is it that you want to save?” “I must protect the country’s freedom.” “You humans have these ways of inventing material and calling it freedom. Freedom is wild.” “Freedom is capitalism. Slavery is communism. This country is on its way to the latter.” “You wish to save a country from itself, but can you save you from yourself?” “I can do what I can to intervene and make the world a better place.” “That is not freedom. Freedom is untamed. Freedom is when I fly above the mountains. Freedom is when my siblings and I fight for food, some live, and some die. There is goodness and evil in each living being. Who do you seek to protect?” “I must do what I can to protect my country’s interest. If more countries choose to enslave themselves, then the United States will lose its allies and we will lose to the Soviet Union.” “I’ve seen enough. I wish to be a bird again.” Buen Vivir Individualism is prison The rejection of duality is a glove When I was a canary, I was a pinky While my human acquaintance was the thumb You need to wiggle both fingers in order to put on the glove The glove is life Life is ferociously feral light touching embrace In this life you will take what you must, but should always give more You will watch eclipses as the earth wonders what they mean Your love will carve a black hole in your heart, eradicating all you thought you knew Whilst doing so the trees will watch your every move They will say grace for their inhales feel betrayal when you burn them to the ground And try to comprehend why you feel the need to carve letters and hearts into their skin I can sing still, something that humanism didn’t take from me And when I sing I remember buen vivir When I sing I remember the promise I made when I was born without knowing it To live is to die each day with dignity and grace To make peace with it all To have respect for all walks of life that harmonizes on a tightrope Humans soak up their empires and take what they can They forget to give until trees’ roots consume their carcasses When will they learn? The glove was there the whole time, moving as one breath Each inhale 2 3 4 Hold 2 3 4 Exhale 2 3 4 Hold
