"FACINGFACES 2002 - 04" SELECTED POETRY

NUNCA MAS

I

In Ciudad Juarez,

in an open lot

a field hand

cutting down grass

stumbled over a young

woman’s body

He thought he had tripped

onto a dumped bag of junk

when he heard

the flies buzzing

She lay face-up,

expressionless, naked

except for socks—her hands

bound with shoe laces

Close by, police found

two more bodies and five

female skeletons

Cuerpo uno, tres, ocho



II

Claudia Gonzales’ mother

only recognized her daughter by

the ponytail and blouse

left on her bones

Months after

investigators shut down

their inspection of the lot,

two boys found a clump

of hair, women’s shoes,

ripped panties, and

Claudia’s overalls

Her mother hugs them tight

as though Claudia lives inside



III

Cuerpo nueve, cuerpo

cincuenta, cuerpo cien,

cuerpo dos cientos,

cuerpo, cuerpo, cuerpo

Black numbered

pink wooden stakes testify

Since 1993, more than 300

girls and women

have turned up

with cracked skulls,

snapped necks, raped,

decomposed, shot, stabbed,

strangled. And sometimes

just bones

All thrown out

like used fast food wrappers



IV

When another broken body

is found,

production doesn’t halt

at the malquiladoras

Everyday, more girls

and women arrive,

fill the empty spaces

on assembly lines

Mas y mas, mas y mas

More who can’t afford to

turn down a job paying

a dollar an hour More

who have to walk

across the desert alone



V

In a city where men don’t go to jail

for beating and raping

their girlfriends and wives,

murderers can be choosy.

This one (or these guys)

mangled 80-90, so far

He takes factory workers

and school girls.

He chops their hair off,

carves their skin, slashes

their breasts. He likes slim

teen-aged girls with long dark hair

like Irma Monreal’s only daughter

who was saving for her quinceñera

but didn’t make it home

before her fifteenth birthday

Instead of waltzing with her girl

on the dance floor, dust devils

swirl by as she prays

at Esmeralda’s grave site


VI

Mujeres conocidos muertos

Loved women murdered

Too many pink crosses

More than 300

Nine years

One city

Officials offered prophesies

live on T.V. A few blamed the dead

saying they wandered streets

dressed too revealingly

Presidente Fox made

promises

Suspects were arrested,

tortured to confess

The police announced

the cases solved

But the females

are still slaughtered



VII

These women are mis

hermanas. Our veins

cross the border

like Bridge of the Americas.

Am I naive to believe that

if they were born on this side,

if the killings happened here,

the count

could never get so high--

no matter that they’re

brown and poor?



How many more families

have to tape photos

of their missing daughters

on storefront windows?

How many more crosses

planted in the desert dirt

Cuantos mas cuerpos?

How many more

screams ignored

until the mass murder

is stopped? Cuantos?



Liz Gonzalez
USA
copyright 2002