grandmother’s recipe for good daughters
boil water till it more or less tells you all the things you've done wrong/ add the cinnamon/ let it burn up/
let it decorate the room in its fragrance/ cover the scent of the fire before the neighbors pick up on it/ add
in the rice/ let it soak up what's left of a soul/ say it's for a good cause/ this is motherhood/ her remnants
are our nature/ stir in the whole/ the evaporated/ the coconut/ the condensed/ this is our shot at nurture/
this is birth/ the giving of a life made less of a sin/ our daughters smell like cinnamon/ we rarely stir in
raisins/ flavor is not the purpose/ as long as it is sweet and filling/ they/ warm or chilled/ fermented/ made
to sit/ diluted/ coagulated/ their bellies swell easily/ they are ready to be served to the world/ sustenance
trapped in famines eye/ heritage & culture/ struggle & machismo/ is what takes the best seat at the dinner
table/ pretty suffrage makes for an elaborate display/ gets home/ country/ through destabilization/ divorce/
poverty/ pregnancy/ guerras/ wars/ gets hunger through the night/ and the shy hours of the next morning
that creep in through the window/ the warmth on the bed sheets/ remind men there's a day’s work ahead
but something that will fill them when they come/ home
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TEXT:
CARINA MILENA MACEIRA
KUWAIT / MEXICO