Machete

Misery won't touch you gentle. It always leaves its thumbprints on you; sometimes it leaves them for others to see, sometimes for nobody but you to know of.

―Edwidge Danticat, The Farming of Bones

Machete: I am

Steel cut silver glaciers splitting the sea in-to several bodies of water

Stripped winds slashing through leaves &felling branches & trees

Still ocean waves suspended in blue-curved motion ready to cleave

Stretched cirrus clouds slit open &ready to curdle a stormy scream

Single shards of lightning strip-ped from the fist of an angry god

Surgical scalpel weapons open &stitch scars & swollen wounds

Sullied nail file metal carving cut-icle cane harvest from brittle ground

Sharp teeth slicing raw meat &savaging a pack of hungry wolves

Slick needles blinded by the dark &without an eye for threading

Silhouette of fumbling fingers bathed in moon-light pointing at you, you &

    you––the letter S split–        at the spine &            the sacrum

Machete: my master

The hand is my masterThe flesh my songMy master says:"I know you don'tknow how to makea decision"so when he singsI swing

Machete: the taste

I most prefer the taste of plátanos against my cheeks.Dry against my lips & sometimes sticky sweet on my gumsit severs smooth. I know that what I've cut will feed.

For thirst I like to strike balding coconut skulls swollenwith cerebral fluid that sprinkles my easy edges wet with milk.A drink of solace on a sweltering summer day.

Shredding bark, I spoon a gentle meal back & forth.Lapping the brown, I crave the soft rub of splintered wood.My sharpened tongue insatiable as I carve.

But I flinch when thrust against la caña. Sugar canenectar makes my mouth water. But I can't shakethe bitters of blood that warm my blades when I mistake

skin for stalk. I spit numb & gag.Teething pink muscle gets stuck between my teeth.Dull blades repent for feasting on human flesh.

When I finally hit stubborn bone, it snaps.The collapse, a fissured mountain of crumbling marble,a ballad of sour screams I cannot silence or swallow.

Machete: names

You have called memany names:

KukiriBoloBarangBowieBillhookGolokHawkbillHeavyLatinParangaTapangaCane

You have used meto cut & conquer:

cartilagekingsskinbordersbonetreestendoncolonists& crops

But where can I findthe names of the fleshyou've made me carve?

Where have you buriedthe human limbsyou've made me cleave?

Machete: acceptance

I eat paper    for breakfast& rub my quiet along    the banks of the River    Massacre

I collect soil &    sand on the tipsof my toes    to feel a little less    alone

There is the river    with every bone in itHere is the blade    littered with promise &    swallowed names

There is the border of fish &    flesh crossingHere is the sharp heat &    hunger    I want to love the rain

Raise the city up &    dip my tongue in honeyremember the bones    wild animals & sugarcane    eat tree bark & almonds

I am your endings &    your beginningsI am everything    that begins &    ends with blood

Machete's Lullaby

In the darkin the darkmy dimpled grooveswill cratera heartbefore sunrise& in rainI'll find youagain & againmy handsin your handsglass hidingin sand

Machete: undone

I understand    decaygangrene woundsthat never     seala shine that won't    returnsunlight cutbetween         the leaves    of a palm tree

I know the ache    of decaypulsing    itchingsunburned     poppies    that flowerinto black    dahlias    when you want    the bloodto flow     but it won'twhen you want    the steel     to cutbut it bends    grapes that failto ferment into     wine

Decay is more    than losseveryone knowsdustdecay     is to lose    more than onceWatch     the pieceswither & fall    one leafone limb    one salted     bladeat a timewings of a butterflydried up...