MY MOTHER'S MADNESS

By Vanessa Chica Ferreira

-after Yesenia Montilla


My Mother’s madness is an unmothered bride child/A sacrificial lamb

A collection of porcelain dolls aching/An empty mamajuana bottle

A faulty lighter that laughs at the yellow of nicotine-stained fingers

It is un alabare with pulpit knees

A bare-faced Pentecostal/A rosary-holding Catholic/A singing Christian woman

          Repent/Cristo Viene


My Mother’s madness trips her mother’s shuffling Parkinson's feet

Takes sides with the brother who hates her the most

It wails from city rooftops/Looks down and hallucinates palmas


          She takes it to the doctor

          The Curandera

          The corner and still...