Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


LAS DIAMONDS ARE UNA CHICA'S BEST AMIGA by JANE MILLER

First Line: ARE YOU NOT THAT STRAY MIGNONETTE OF MY GARDEN
Last Line: BE AT HOME IN MY ARMS
Subject(s): CHICANOS; HOME; HOUSEHOLD EMPLOYEES; MEXICAN BORDER; MEXICAN AMERICANS; SERVANTS; DOMESTICS; MAIDS;

Are you not that stray mignonette of my garden
that dog that prowler in ripped jeans
discovered by borderguards
all mixed up about God & firing
rabid up from Tijuana breaknecking 1-805?
O hogback ridge upended
rock carved by river in air o speak again
granitic angel why this choice
to fit a shape to suffering?
Poets who make it to the traffic are free
to expose their bodies
the haunch of the road is dusty & drowsy
bougainvillea in the cliff's ears
It's a pink shirt it's a hot day
civil authorities drink iced tea
with a cup in the v of their legs
& a bullet-proof vest
they roadblock two miles
shooting without fear
they'll pile-up cars
Why not die as you intended
gas clouds over Paradise?
shock-fronts of amputees
retirees & songs for thee?
why not die under the split in the moon
we've come through?
a whiff of aluminum escapes city center
a whiff of aluminum settles its ounce of vapor
San Diego once beautiful
these mountains moved
dawn & dusk in the transcendent sun
where we are made to die only of love
but who will live this if you die on fire
whose vaporized metal will this stony site be
over whom air-balloons strafe?
Mark how the seashells find their way
to the mountaintop once again
there's an end to this world
scaled down to memories & dreams
be at home in my arms



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