My daughter was born in 1995,
born with curly brown hair, and plum dark eyes.
She started walking at the age of two,
The smartest girl in her class,
would sing the ABC front and back

By the time she was four, we moved to Peru.
She picked up Spanish like she would pick up a flu.
At times she talked like an adult,
a half- sized human with so much attitude.

We lived in a pent-house on the 11th floor.
Best view in Lima, we had a pool in the apartment block.
In 1999, I left her in the room playing with Polly-Dolls,
And that’s when she climbed up to the open balcony door

as a kid
there's nothing
like wasting away inside a tiny
room
sitting on the backrest
of the couch
looking out the window
and seeing her
tread through the rain

a red umbrella covers
her.

Mother

she's going back
to the liquor store

It takes Corona waves,
For the world to stop crying.
If you listen closely,
maybe you will also embrace the silence.

Would you still love this land after it has been destroyed by those who claimed it as their own?
        
Would you still fight to protect it, after they burnt the wheat fields and the green canopies to the ground?
        
Would you still respect it, after time and again it has been cracked apart and exploited until there was nothing left to take?
        
Would you take pride in a forgotten land with no name?
     
Would you still wander the land, after it's soil has been poisoned by foreign nations?
        
Would you still look at this land with tenderness, after it has fallen in the hands of filthy pirates and conquerors?
        
Would you still find beauty in this land, after it's diamonds have been traded for stones?
        
Would you listen to the wind of this woman, that has nothing to offer but ruptured songs?

What were they if two intoxicated believers,

Unraveling their lust in the dark.

What were they if two poisoned liars,

Swallowing the truths from each other's past.

What were they if two amateur thieves,

Robbing breaths from each other's mouth.

What were they if two lost souls,

Wandering on each other's doubts.

What were they if two thirsty wrestlers,

Fighting their way onto each other's core.

What were they if two night walkers,

Crossing lines they could no longer ignore.

What were they if two masked incinerators,

Lighting flames onto their future ghosts.

What were they if two tangled shadows,

Obscuring the light on their souls.

What were they if two desperate silhouettes,

Drinking poison from each other's bodies.

What were they if two broken prisoners

Trying to free each other from their stories.

You put colors to my life
never realized that
putting all the colors together
will make my world dark.