Naomi Helena Quiñonez




       A Thin Line

  for the women of Juarez

 for the women of Juarez
       It is a wide desert
          and a thin line
           thin as ropes
      that bind the wrists
of undernourished women

       It is a vast plain
  of unmitigated history
      and a slim knife
  that cuts off the breasts
     of would-be mothers

       It is a mother lode
       of corporate profit
          and a ribbon of
          bleeding throats

         It is a mass grave
         of terror and rape
           and a small slice
   of our uncertain futures

         It is large enough
          to hide the bones
   of suffocated women
   but not quiet enough
              to stifle
              their cries

         Kill us when you can
    torture us when you can
         bury us if you can

    But the spirits of women
          who die in battle
               will return
                 as fierce
           hummingbirds

           winged warriors
                 of history
          hovering memory
                 of your
        forgotten humanity

            A border is only 
          an imaginary line
                 all hearts
              are the center
            of the universe.