Margo Tamez

When the end was near He threatened   hands trembling There is no end    never his hands reaching to my face You can’t leave taking off his shirt   going for his pants The trickle of sweat beading off his nose Moon-orb spray   metallic shimmer     slicklove Tripping numb night shadows Crows perched on a streetlight We’re terrestrial ants living in fragility On Huhugam sacred ground Jar of our dead Like ragged cats my ghosts and I Gossip in the alley behind a bar My eyes grasp theirs     a spark     revolution Feet without tracks on gravel Our existence erased   far off From clinking beer bottles and vanity On the bench outside a bookstore We get erased    see the news of the street Resistance getting milled My favorite ghosts and I bear down harder    birth ourselves On the bench outside a bookstore Frigid wind wants to snatch our secrets Hey nay ya na ya na ya na I thank you thank you for your presence My ghosts   I thank you for your presence Hey nay ya na   ya na   ya na  ya na This dilemma  oh ancestors O! ancestors !!!!   I thank you  thank you  thank you Hey nay ya na ya na ya na ya na

I lift my body one leg then another over the cold curve of the claw-foot tub Like a walking stick with a colossal cocoon attached A beast and a mutant   I am this Hooked on the steam of hot water I Negotiate stretched skin   a sore spine   the splitting of imminent birth What do you want Mammoth   a domemoon stomach Carved by spidery trails     former settlement You in there baby think you’re ready for this Sing soprano notes   sing sounds of upness Says the midwife She says go ahead   smoke some marijuana you see she’s our motherherb   sacred medicine   not for foolery and selfishness   never to be used in that other way you know she works deeply niece   can take care those injuries bad mister   wrecks   he set     snaring you this medicine   will   show you    the things killing all of us