209: Discovery
209: Discovery
Discovery
by Natalie Scenters-Zapico
Read the automated transcript.
Her knees are caves, her belly
home to a colony
of snakes. I draw maps
of lands she’s never seen
on the palms of her hands.
My arms, a river
that floods her throat. Her thirst,
a tongue washed
with charcoal. Say: Help.
She will show me how
to harvest the roots
of any tree. Say: Sky.
I’ll pinch every inch
of her skin. I named her
America, because I own
her body & her child’s.
Every river down her arms
I must rename. When I got
the cartography wrong
I said: Tear the map
in half so we won’t
get confused. America’s hands
bled & bled. I told her:
Clean it up.
"Discovery" by Natalie Scenters-Zapico, from LIMA :: LIMÓN by Natalie Scenters-Zapico, copyright © 2019 Copper Canyon Press. Used by permission of Copper Canyon Press.