“Lullaby” by Maia Elsner

amapola, lindisima amapola milk tear falling, falling       through, it leaves its trace inscribing tombs yo te quiero in fractured sentences and memorized wounds amada nina mia petal-satin soft crumbling into red, you too bled through fingertips igual que ama la Jlor al luz de! dia in the Tijuana summer even the sun crosses over, is lost to the other side la luz de! dia jutting out hard steel spike hard against yo te quiero indifferent waves amapola, lindisima you wait for the fog-fall save pennies from a second-hand sale from across the border in Mexicali, the US wall makes up the fourth of your home this is the state transnational trade you sang to me un par de ojitos negros, cielito lindo de contrabando before I lost your language to the streets, my ‘r’s all wrong in Spanish except when I say three you taught me, counting pebbles the tongue-tide sea kisses the edge of drowning inbetween two cities & I’m still waving at you from the other side, you sang to me
un par de ojitos negros a pair of tangerine wings flecked black    ese lunar que tienes
junto a la boca lips caress as oars divide an ocean amada nina mia
no se lo des a nadie
you shut your eyes they searched you a second time, amapola