Early Years
Laughing benevolence
our soles splashed
into small water pools
filled by moving life and
Further away, our mother stooped,
Mothers always drank bitterness,
and collected sea snails and abalone
My brother, my Fate’s choice
moved his hand swiftly to grab the little crab
Before it took refuge in the crevasse
only a crab could see and
We lived in fear, for our father was
in a land unknown to our little world,
exiled, away from the pangs of the police
informants: such was our luck
that early in life we tasted
the bitter orphan waters
yet like tree branches we stretched
our limbs against the elements
and like birds prematurely, we grew wings
Libros Libertad 