"FACINGFACES 2002 - 04" SELECTED POETRY (Part 2)

Not Too Far From Here
(for the women of Juarez)

Not too far from here
smudged red lipstick
remains on the hands of
two legged coyotes
who savor women's flesh.
Not too far from here
piles of parched bones and
burgandy smocks lie in the
desert and names of maquiladoras
are etched on the skull, femur, somewhere.
Not too far from here
women are expendable
last page news
equivalent to the peso.
Not too far from here
the stench lingers through
the holes of barbwire fences
crossing the borders
and tickling our noses
Not too far from here in Juarez
hundreds go unsolved
meaningless breasts and wombs
strewn across vast amounts of land
decaying
Not too far from here
an uneasy silence
covers unmentionable deaths
Brujas blancas are working overtime
calling on the Virgen for assistance
Not too far from here
we can hear whispers of restless souls
crying for peace
crying for justice

Garbage

Babies used to be left wrapped in
cotton blankets decorated with pink ducks
and placed on cherry wood pews in
Catholic Churches.

Babies used to be placed on back porches
in weaved baskets in nice neighborhoods.
Now we rid this " garbage " from our bodies
yanking the cord and
gutting ourselves
like fish.

Troublesome irritating little humans
Tossed in trash cans of the nearest alleys
like beer cans
like used needles
like cigarette butts
in dilapidated card board boxes
Recyclable material
no...
Murder, murder, murder.

If I Had Known

If I had known it would end like this
If I had known paradise would disappear
the moment that bitch took a bite of
the apple, the moment that Adam
let his guard down.
I would have tugged on God's
robe at the spark of my conception
and told God I don't want to go.
There should have been a warning of
talking snakes and manipulation
A warning loud like the sirens
of air raids.
Air raids that defeated men in
Hawaii's paradise.
Adam should have kept his rib
cause paradise has transformed
into sticky fire hydrants
and crack pipes aborted fetuses and hatred.
Now Mother Earth needs a papsmear
She needs a thousand bulldozers and
dump trucks between her legs
to clear away toxins and debris
like at ground zero
the air I breathe is bitter
like a lemon on a tree
in a South Central backyard.
If I had known it would end like
this, then the garden of eden
should have been boarded
up and surrounded with barbwire
like concentration camps
that demonstrated the lack of human
civility. If I had known it would end
like this, I never would have
designed my wings in Heaven's Art class,
wings that would fly me into my
mother's birth canal. If I had known
it would end like this, I would have
skinned that freakin snake and wore him
as shoes.

© Jackie Joice - Usa