la hija de la llorona

Petra Salazar

 

a pack of coyotes

dragged   a drowned

child   from the river

 

yelping

yapping

yips

 

they licked   the salt

from her    eyes   shocked

open    drank from the dark

well    of her mouth

 

scattered by the rattles

  wrapping her

in undulating

  scales 

 

hissing  water

from her lungs

 

uncoiled

breathing

sleeping

child

 

warmed by sand

& sunset   blood

on red cliffs

 

listen

your mother

  wails up river

 

roused

she stood

& ran far

 

in the other

direction

 

 

***

Petra Salazar is a coyote (regional term for an Indohispano/Anglo racial identity) from Española, New Mexico aka “Spaña.” They teach children at a Montessori school and adults at philopoetics.com. Petra’s work has been published or is forthcoming in Colorado Review, Indiana Review, Sonora Review, The Southampton Review, Latin American Literature Today, and elsewhere.