Arte Sana

Ni Una +

Not One More

With Death in My Eyes

Death, I have seen you

of course I have seen you

and I have seen your big blue eyes

when you cut my mother’s

fallopian tubes and ovaries

without asking or responding

I have seen you.

When I came near the corner of the barrio

and those men looked at me

with skulls in their eyes

and the breathing of an angry ox

Of course I have seen you

When I arrived at the hospital

without color, balance, and in spasms

without money and without insurance

and you stood in the corner of the room

to fill me with the anguish that comes

with the smell of alcohol

of an old hospital room

Of course I have seen you.

I have seen you hover around my friends

and choose the youngest ones without reason

filling them with warts and smells

while they would sweat impossible liquids

Death, I have seen you

I have seen you dancing in my eyes

when my hands and my strength

would hit a cheating woman

dressed the same as your pain and disenchantement

Death, I have seen you

Of course I have seen you

I have seen you dressed in unnecessary protection

justifying your dance

of war tanks and bombs

fallen upon the head

of a fisherwoman of dreams in Vieques.

I have seen you.

Passing through the streets

of my barrios

in uniform and camoflauge

I have seen you.

Scrutinize you in my blood

in my mouth and in my mind

snatching the possibility

of my own recourse and brave expression

of course I have seen you

I have seen you with these eyes

favored and tearful

openly spying on you

searching for you in the dark

and awaiting you footsteps.

I have seen you.

I have seen you and felt you

near….very near

as close as the touch of the wind

at any moment of the day.

by Sebastian Colón In Celebration of the Day of the Dead
November 2, 2002
Austin, TX

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