Angelica Root
What back we spring from.
What woman we unravel
from. What blade pour
howling into our pearltight
mouth. We am diamond in
land’s eye we am rotwitness
moving lightmemory we
tell. We treetalk. All the
yous untangling in our own
body. We see all our child.
We gave our tooths for our
sight and swallow ocean
eye. You know. You know in
your deep. Open. We am
the coin in your throat for
passage. We am the bodies
in the river. We am the river
birth you. We am language
in your body. We
say ourselves in blood.
Listen. We am saying so
much and you don’t
listening. We am saying so
much message turn to
cancer unspooling through
your. They unstitch our
bones from your babies.
Our muscle making the
house he rattles into your
hips. They eat your fruit we
made. Pear baby pear baby.
Listen. We language in
your body. We say ourselves
back. We say ourselves until
you memory our alive
Copyright © 2022 by Vanessa Angélica Villarreal. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on October 7, 2022, by the Academy of American Poets.