My people
married their
first cousins
and passed on
crooked backs
and congenital
deafness -
my people
scraped desert island hills
into terraces
and pleaded
with the earth -
my people
gathered the rain
in cisterns
hidden beneath their huts.
There was never
enough,
and poverty
only begets beauty
and generosity
in the movies.
It's only true
children are fear
and jealousy.
And that is why
my people
set sail
and did not
return.
