FIERY WOMBS

My grandmother, Jesus, full blood
Yaqui, a curandera/healer from
Sonora, who popped the paper
sack with her hand at the 

border crossing, the rude
officer emptying all her carefully
packed luggage, boxes, pregnant with
my mother, crossing legally with her

minister/poet husband to a church in
East Los Angeles, she popped the sack,
shouting, AIRE MEXICANA, I can
see her eagle eyes from my

childhood, defiant to her
molten core, her heart, her
spirit, her fiery womb- I read this,
that women are born with their

ovaries, all their eggs, so a part
of us in our grandmother's, great
grandmother's, great great, their
wombs, their fiery wombs,

in my daughter, my granddaughter,
my great great, yes, grandson,
my sons born from these fiery
ancestor wombs, we are.
        *        *        *        *
Yesterday in line for my FM-3 to 
live in Mexico, I saw the
photo they chose, among the
smiling, friendly ones- I look

like I have indigestion, someone's
trying to fuck with me, someone
won't let me travel the ancient
trade routes, the I-don't-need-no-

stickin-badges-look, not pretty,
believe me, and I start to laugh,
"I look like a damn criminal,"
I say to the customs guy, he protests

that I don't look like a criminal-
"I'm a border crosser, so I
must be," I laugh louder. "Ayyy
senora," he shakes his head. We

Villanueva women, Jesus Villanueva,
cross our borders with Kokopelli's 
ancient flute in our ears, laughing,
shouting, dancing, fiery wombs.


                                        Arizona's SB 1070 give me indigestion,
                                            One people, one planet the next
                                            1,000 years, QUE VIVA....
                                        Alma Luz Villanueva (c)
                                        San Miguel de Allende, Mexico


Jesus y Pablo, wedding day, Sonora, Mexico...

 

my great-grandmother, a well known curandera
in Sonora at that time, refused to name her daughter
the feminine, Jesusa, I love that, her fiery womb.

**All postings/poetry on this blog copyright- 
contact me via the email shown here for 
publication requests, as I've received some,
gracias. This poem will be published in my 
new book, 'GRACIAS,' fall 2013- will post
info toward summer 2013. As well as my novel, 
'SCORPION HUNTER,' The Twins, the same
publishing date.