Verses in the Wind

i.
           nacimos y morimos
we are born & we die
           es el ciclo de la vida
moving mountains of moments 
we begin again
falling drops of starlight 
we wash away the empire’s sins
the year 
that marked us but we cannot 
wash away 
the wind

ii.         for
our people who touch the land
work the soil / with determined
backs bent / eyes to the sky 
reclaim our heritage 
my urban mind a gray winter blizzard 
washed in blue tones / here in my homeland
remember a forever summer in my blood
my hips move in the reclaiming of the rhythm of a 
shovel that swings / this urban
jibara heart beat / beats strong here 
where i belong / home is soil beneath my fingernails
pebbles unearthed / pushed by my sweaty arms 
& in the palms of my hands where i hold
a full cup of faith

iii.         
when I die 
let me leave more 
than these verses in the wind

say / my breath / before it is vapor / forgotten
left something in the breeze / in the moonlight 
that eased someone else’s sorrow

when my skin blows away 
& my bones are one with the red clay
of my homeland, please say / i did something more 
than write words