Prayers to the Saints of Prison (excerpt)

Arnoldo Colibri: Mujer luna | Moon woman | 5″x5″ acrylic on found cardboard December 2020 (C)

PRISONERS

The vowels are in solitary confinement

The consonants are being beaten

by sadistic dictionaries

policing the libraries and classrooms

Our words and our stories are being devastated,

swallowed whole

by the molecules of monopoly capital

While the protest sits in his ivory tower

Hunted by elephants wanting revenge

Our language is gutted

Our hands cut off

To hold mirrors

impossible

To make gang signals for love

an infraction against

the street walkers and day laborers of light

They stab our eyes

so that we cannot

flutter or flirt or cry

in silence or in each other’s hands

The dictionaries slice off our lips

preventing our kisses

They chop off our tongues

for good measure

Our bodies become

our words and our bibles

our nests and our wings

our fury and our tenderness

to ingest

the iron bars,

the steel walls,

the disorders of the border policing…

[By arnoldo garcía: [February 6, 2019]