Looking for a piece on earth
looking for a peace place
I'm American
I wouldn't even know how
Slam poetry about my ancestors
The Holy Land is about as big as NJ
My best friend sister wife
she's Jewish, Montclair NJ
this land is her land with a Haifa Uncle
I was just a spy in the Jews-only desert
I am also even a spy in the NM desert
I never remember the stories and I have to ask again and again, embarrassed
driving through Galisteo with mom
Where The Valencias Lived In The Late 1600s
cluster of old houses stone wood adobe
The little church
the dogs behind fences
no one around
Juanita my great great grandmother
was taken away by who? A Valencia?
A pueblo Indian? at 15 years old?
scooped up off her family's ranch to be a bride
I just picture my self at 15
in a pioneer posture
Can you imagine being taken away on horseback at 15
my mom asks
Yes
I think I would've accepted anything at 15 years old
I thought I wanted to get married at 15 years old
I'm ready to get married now
to live in my ancestral peace desert
the NM one
yellow grass grown around brittle stones
we don't speak much in the car
I ask about the cacti
those are cholla
the cholla are black because it's winter
hunched over like vulture piles with yellow flowers
and there are black cows
so black they look like holes cut out of the field
pretty things
Dusty tinsel of roadside memorials
a ghostly nativity scene in white christmas lights
I want dirt and horses
a porch to an endless rugged scape
There is even a historic saloon in Lamy called
Legal Tender Saloon!
my favorite term
Slam poetry about my ancestors
where do I really come from
I'm always stuck in the cracks
I wear my home in my heart
pledge allegiance to My Bed
speak through other people's signs
It's all on foot to me
it's all walking through it
