Prayer for Cada Dia

Everyday
I shall write about
this piercing terror
that needles through every
single pore of my skin


I sit at the computer
staring at lace curtains
late summer greenleaves
dampened trunks of
a giant cedar elm
and Southern pecan
after a drenching
thunderstorm


I thirst for a stream of
delicious words
honeyed by the warmth
of my faith
that I can travel inside
the mind of the Goddesses
Gaia, Athena, Isis,
Kali, Artemis and Guadalupe


I am at the tip of their strong
fingers, or they are coming
through the endpoints of mine
I am light on my strikes
to this molded plastic
they call a link to
humanity
the computer
my friend
sometimes
my enemy
the tool I use to
travel light years
in a moment of brilliantly colored
fantasy and thought

Come forth oh ladies of mystery!
come forth
through these muscled
hands that love to dig
the earth of my family’s
history and
find sad bones
tortured memories
salty braids of love lost
and hope betrayed
sugar rocks
and chocolate wheels
corn husks
blankets of coarse thread
clay bean pots
frijoles calientitos
and somber images
of el Sagrado Corazon
and La Virgen and her
Ninõ Jesús
burning candles
ancient ghosts
that made us laugh
and rosaries for
the dead

Come forth and show me
what I forget I already know
about what makes
me brown marimacha
special and not

Abrázame Diosa
Hold me Goddess
in your rebozo of
wisdom and light

Help me write
a word, a story that
will forever connect me
to those women I loved
and have now buried

to my cocinera, my cook
my tejera, my  seamstress
to my Abuela la jardinera
y a la maestra de mis
malas maneras

Yes, cada dia
everyday
I shall write
and remember
that the piercing terror
is a gift and a door
to las memorias
to unrelenting
word and prayer
to a rosary of love
and as many legends,
myths and old viejas’ tales

Yes, everyday
I shall remember
and be grateful
that I can remember
and weep and tell the stories
that make them
mis Diosas
and my written fragments
a way for me to feel
and never to forget.

Elvia Arriola, Austin, Texas, 1999.