banana [ ] by Paul Hlava Ceballos

Author:Paul Hlava Ceballos [Ceballos, Paul Hlava]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780822989233
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press

On Monday, the very few of us that were left, together with the workers from the ranch, had to resist.

We could go back to work because they saw that the team from NGO Justice and Peace were there.

That is how we managed to stay here until now.

Now here, as you can see, we are growing bananas.

We are growing only food: bananas, rice, corn.

I don’t have yucca—I planted it when I came back, but now I have pigs and they eat the yucca.296

3. Irma

Genesis

All alone here, she was just a kid

who didn’t know what a hamburger was

who didn’t know why this brand of green dish-soap

spewed foam from dishwasher to peeling linoleum

She didn’t know English for I’m sorry sir or No please

What she wanted was a good story to take her away

What she wanted was capable children who knew

how to craft soup from the lone wishbone

leftover from the master’s dinner plate

Her laughter clacked two stones to start a fire

kitchen rich with sweet marrow

It was winter in America

and here comes the healer cradling plump papayas

here comes the healer threading palo santo smoke to stitch a wound

here comes the healer in the crosshairs of soldiers

who understand no language

but fear of a god born to a state

where volcanoes kiss earth like U.S. forged cluster bombs

Prostrate she plucked dustballs from offices at daybreak

What she wanted was a good novela to drown the drum

of male bosses whose firm whims knew best

Mi cielo I wanted you to be more independent than me

So she cut her native tongue to protect her kin

forced me to scrub peeling linoleum on my hands and knees

handed down ass-whoopings with a wooden spoon

dabbed lagañas at weepy corners of midnight

Her mother wove white veils of Ceibo cotton to bridge her here

Her grandmother drank tortuga blood to bridge her here

She is swathed in moon-glow and cerulean robes

She stands in diamond studded skies on the fat arms of babies

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