A Tongue in the Mouth of the Dying

One Man’s Name: Colonization of the Poetic, i.

ONE MAN’S NAME: COLONIZAT ION OF THE POETIC Bridges are thresholds to other realities, archetypal, primal symbols of shifting consciousness. . . . [They] span liminal spaces between worlds, spaces I call nepantla, a Náhuatl word meaning tierra entre medio [land in between]. —Gloria Anzaldúa i. This is the womb There are the men From which my children came Those white beards This is the skin I use to feel. These feet Wave like flags in the sky above us. Walk the land. With these hands, I straighten The spines of my children. On this bridge they were given to live. There are the men who line up ships. 5 ...