Monday, December 30, 2013

Carmen Tafolla, "La Siembra"

Some seeds are white and full,
well-cultivated, stored carefully,
too expensive to be fed to chickens
or thrown far to land by themselves out in the field.

Some seeds are dark and durable,
soft and red on the inside,
and used loosely, farmers thinking
there's plenty more where they came from. 

Sad that they're so carefully separated.
You know, the hybrid could be
quite good.
And freedom finds its own,
without effort,
some seeds traveling in the wind,
on their own,
above farmers' intentions.

Jungles are strange gardens.
Sometimes they are defoliated
so they can be watered down good
con toda esa lluvia roja
with all that red rain.
And all the seeds become rare together,
and each one just as valuable.

Sometimes you don't see the result
for a long while
but it's always there.
The maverick, germinating years later,
always leaves its mark.

Who knows what new plants will give
salsa picante and corn pone seeds
on former front lines?
Will it be black-eyed peas? Spinach greens?
Or corn to make masa for tamales?

Strange red rain of seeds---tossed so loosely---
with farmers thinking they could afford
to lose a few
or even a lot.

The leaves will sprout in South Texas,
New Mexico, Harlem, Georgia---
Chicano leaves and Black leaves---
all over Viet Nam.
The land will have been 
well watered.

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