Poetry:
deCormier-Shekerjian, Regina
Regina de Cormier-Shekerjian Paloma Have I then been nothing? Tlacailel Beneath the amber cry of the sun she coos like a dove on the beach where she walks trailed by dogs. Her red skirt slaps her...
...to Coatlicue, Aztec earth mother, and of these two she finally asked, have I then been nothing...
...And began to coo...
...The only barren woman in the village, everyone knows Paloma has taken powerful herb medicines...
...Trees are humming their shadows beneath a sky birds ravel...
...The cracked bell of the church is sounding matins...
...Her red skirt slaps her bare legs as she strides close to the wind-scuffed lake, the pack of dogs, close at her heels, bewitched...
...Everyone knows she has made offerings and prayed daily for years to the Virgin of Guadalupe and, just to make sure...
...Mornings, afternoons, and again in the evenings, she walks this beach, cooing...
...by her cooing...
...In her hands this morning a red rose she plucked from the gringo's garden wall...
...This morning the wind is crazy with dreams where light bleeds down the side of the mountain and slopes across the beach...
...For this she has been given the name Paloma, Paloma, women whisper at her passing, Paloma hymns the myth of our being...
...She offends no one but her husband with her cooing...
Vol. 115 • June 1988 • No. 12
