Miss Cook in the Air
for Pat Parker
Feb, 2012
Dear Miss Cook,
Even though I never
Heard you speak
Back in the day
When your body of clay
Danced among
The living dead
When you loved here
When you wept here...
I happen to show up for
Your Birthday every year!
Your purple seeds dispersed
Beyond the Bay
Have found fertile ground in my heart
And this is the first time i dare say
How i appreciate your balls!
Dear miss
Forgive me for
Approaching
You like this
Once removed
From the veil of time
La luz de esta candela para ti!
The spirit of green Earth para ti!
Mujer nobleza
Mujer libre, Mujer negra
Mujer who saw more pain than eyes can bare,
Who never conformed, who never surrendered
Mujer you were a dove tail deer,
An azabache stallion
Cabalgando con gracia la estampida de tu furia
Derrivando todas las puertas cerradas
Sweeping like a woman
The natural pathways
For the rising spirit
Mujer who left testimony,
Who endowed us with legacy!
How I would love to say
Mira, how things have changed,
How I would love to report,
Now that i dare your spirit invoke
That we are better off than before
That the business of killing women
Is no more....
"But the southern fence bears
An even stranger sight
Dismembered human bodies
Multiplying on both sides
Thousands and thousands of
Migrants funneled through the deserts left to die
The pears rotting in the orchards this year
No hummingbirds arrived...."
Miss Cook some times, you know
The strongest ones
Are fragile like obsidian stones
And die young, full of life, and purpose...
While the rest of us keep
Living like death
Keep birthing our sickly children
Who resent us for destroying
With mindless procedures
And psychopathic logic
All that was good to eat,
Feel and think.
Elder Sister
Kayumari
Venada del sol
Now that you are in the air
Oh, how I want to say
even if ignorance stands in the way
Que aqui estamos
Que esta es nuestra palabra
Ixpiyakock, Ixmucane,
Abuela del Sol y de la Aurora
Miranos, oyenos
Oyenos, miranos
Aqui estamos
Nosotros the ones remaining
The faun, the salmon, the tortoise,
The eagle, the bear,
The ants and the bees,
The raven, the hare
Nosotros
The unseen creatures
Of the sacrificial mountain
In the timeless ritual
Of re-membering
Your wholeness
With great reverence
Aqui estamos, once again
Bringing together the
One thousand bones
Of our Coyolxauki
Estos somos nosotros
Each of us in the sweet labor
Of gathering
Your bones and teeth
Scattered around
Hidden under the buildings
Carefully forgotten
Buried under the concepts
Of god and country
Temple and hospital
Family and economy...
Estos somos nosotros
From the four corners of the globe
From all the dimensions
From the ghettos of imperial thought
From the memory of rape,
Your sister's femicide
From all that seemed
Impossible in your day
Bringing you back together
Again
Dearest Miss
Now that you are in the air
As guardian of the forests
Come and feast
On this ofrenda de spoken flores
The word of your daughters and grand daughters
Embodying your longing
Your dreams of dancing
Simply for the glory de tu Corazon sereno
Laughing with the joy of a waking volcano
At the complete acceptance of your nature
Your song, your cosmic identity
Your spiritual responsibility
Con la luz de esta candela,
Your sexuality celebrated!
With the fire of this rum
Your blackness celebrated!
With the gold of this yellow rose
Your motherhood celebrated!
With the eloquence of words
Your artistry celebrated!
Rukux, kaj, rukux, ulew, rukux iq, rukux poloj
Tus cuatro patas de gacela
Keep the heavens in place, don't you know?
Your ability to leap beyond this world
Recharging the home of destiny
With the drive of realization allow
With the completion
Of the work of love...
It feels like hunger satisfied,
The soft breeze of your presence
Allow me to thank you
In 4 tongues,
Sun, Earth, Water, Time,
The 4 caminos of redemption,
Matiux, Tlazokamati
Gracias, thank you
For creating this beautiful occasion,
This room full of bad ass artists
Singing your praises
So that you may never be forgotten
May your courage blossom in our arteries
In our ovaries
Gran abuela Pat Parker palpitating in the air
Can you help us from where you are?
So that we can finally put together all of our scattered parts?
So that we can go places complete and not dismembered?
So that we are no longer manipulated,
So that we stop ourselves from betraying
Can you help us from where you are?
To set each other free
From the enemies of womankind?
So that we may cure the cancer
Of arrogance and infamy?
And wipe away the parasites
From the human family?
Gran Abuela
May your beauty blossom in our gestures
Your courage in our actions
Your freedom in the air
Corazon de gacela
Cara limpia de la luna llena.
Here I bring you
My honest pain
My song for a generation
Living and dying in chains
