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Remedios II, Water

for Tiana Suazo

Poem by Karen Vargas

we play all day beneath
heavenly shade of
cottonwood

 

     cotton drifting down
     in swirls of manna
     from above


    warm breeze glimmers
    sunlight and shadows 
    of tree leaves across us


we sit on the small
wooden bridge, dirty
jeans rolled up to


our knees
water from Carlota’s
acequia rushes beneath

 

us to her orchards of

peach trees
further downfield brown Parciantes

 

fling seed giving birth to dry fields wait

for a share of compuerta’s small flood
we have spent our entire lives under

 

this vast moving sky, in this mountain’s wake

waiting for our share, waiting for the rain
waiting for monsoons, praying they will come

 

if you have two peaches, you only get one

if you have one, then you only get half
waiting for our share, two half suns

 

sweet juice rivulets down arms, receive

our share, then fling the pit back to God

Peaches

Karen Vargas is from northern New Mexico. Her poetry and short stories have been published in Epoch, Catamaran Literary Reader, Borderlore Journal, La Palabra: The Word is a Woman series, and others. She is a Plain View Fellow, and the recipient of a Truman Capote Award, a Taos Resident Writers Award, and a Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation residency. She plans on applying to the MFA in Creative Writing program at IAIA in 2023. 

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