for my fellow Hispanas Unidas

If you tire in the struggle
Of counter attacks of who and what you are;
Remember the faces of the women you love.
Look not in the dish water
Nor in the dust behind the TV
Or glare of angry men.
Look for the faces of the women
We all love

In the early morning dew,
8888that falls in the "llanos" of Selma.
8888In sunbeams hitting green grass at a.m.
8888In memories of white sheets,
8888Purifying in the blazing suns of Fort Stockton.
8888In lace curtains that survived their ephemeral lives.
If you tire in the struggle
Of constant echoes of, "it's not your place";
Remember the names of the women you love.
Look not in teeming laundry hampers
Or in the mildew on the sink.
See the names of the women you love
And hear their voices rise
Out of the freshly overturned earth of the Valley
Newly opened and ready.
In the nests of birds in Winter,
Tucked away like secrets hidden out of reach;
But full of life.
In broken cartwheels that dot the horizons
of East Texas.
Quiet sentinels that once took them somewhere,
And were left behind
to lie in fields of green green grass.
8888If you tire in the struggle
8888of changing what befits your gender,
8888Remember the names of the women you love
8888Emblasoned in growing corn fields
8888And vibrant azalea flower beds;
8888And cups of herbal teas ready to be read.
8888In the melting butter on steaming hot tortillas,
8888In the faces of your sisters going off to work;
8888Free of handeddown sins.
If you tire in the struggle
Of defending your ideas,
Take the hand of the women you love
And feel them in your heart.
For, hand in hand
We can all leave the music box
That has contained us for so long;
Held prisoners of those who open it.
Take the hand of the women you love.
And, let us take our flight
8888To be no longer ephemeral
8888But real, and here to stay

.
888888—ENEDINA CASAREZ VASQUEZ © 1987

POST-A-POEM SERIES, No.2. Oct. 1987©
Co-Editor: Juan "Nuno" Cardenas
HUEHUETITLAN Journal
MandA Press, San, Antonio, Tejas U.S.A.