Natives                  Montezuma Bald Cypress, Sugar Hackberry.
                                Roseate Spoonbill, Groove-billed Ani.
                                Green Jay, Oriole, Vermillion Fly Catcher,
                                White Ibis, my father, Long-billed Thrasher.  

 
Non-Natives        Washingtonian palm, Coco palm,
                                My mother, Margaret Lee.
                                Winter Texans from the north.
                                From the south, killer bees.

Grafting                Cleave the bark, create a tree.
                                Ruby-Star, Rio-Sweet.

                                My three siblings, me.

                                At the center of every bright thing
                                a question of purity.  

Heritage

It bore no return address, no
vaccination tags. It smelled somewhat
like impostors, or improbability.
It grew pale in the flashlight’s beam
and would not say its name.
We soaped and scrubbed, but 
it would not come clean. We requested
that it wear a robe or hat, that it fold
its hands upon its lap, feet under its seat.
And where to keep it? Too gangly for the bassinet,
too pouty for the parlor. We pressed it
like a flower but the book kept flapping
open. We expected it to know a dance
or special call. It would not shimmy, shake,
or tap its skinny toes. We begged it summon others
like itself, but no one came. We patted it and told it
not to cry. We cried. We searched for numbers
we could dial. We shushed and cooed. We spoke
to it in slow, loud tones. We shut it up.
I won’t say how. We gulped it down.
It won’t go down. We speak and hear its voice. 

Poems on the Web: The Flood

“A Journey Through Want: Blas Falconer, A Question of Gravity and Light “
http://latinopoetryreview.com/

“A Reason to Persist: Sheryl Luna, Pity the Drowned Horses”
http://latinopoetryreview.com/

“All Aboard: Riders as Players, Aisle as Stage: Monica Teresa Ortíz, On A Greyhound Straight from the 915”
http://latinopoetryreview.com/

“Beyond Mangoes and Assimilation: MiPoesias, American Cuban Issue”
http://latinopoetryreview.com/

“Eye Witness Storm Spotter: Christian Hawkey’s The Book of Funnels”
http://www.gulfcoastmag.org/index.php?n=3&si=3&s=361