BIO
Lynda Letona is an English Instructor at Los Angeles Valley College. She received her MFA from the University of Notre Dame. Her poetry and nonfiction has appeared in Ostrich Review, Liternational, and Hotmetalpress. She is currently working on a collection of poetry titled The House of Dark Writings. Part I of the series explores the Spanish conquest of the Mayas through noble princess Anacaída; Part II explores an immigrant saga through DREAM student Lucía.
Puz naual haleb
Puz naual haleb
Puz naual haleb
Puz naual haleb
If I could roll
myself into a ball
of fire
float upon earth’s surface
I would come down
swift, weight of cypress,
strike pale monkey faces until
they redden blistered until
their prayers are maimed
sores that boil and burn like
backs of nobles’ sons
branded with crowned emblems
of Spanish House, until
last loud ring of time
echoes in hollow
stone temple.
Puz naual haleb
Twist my arms, Huracán,
until my sharp nails tear a slit into
your black eye. Heart
of Heaven.
My hands from your pupil will swim
back to feathered serpent sea.
My hands, blue wings
lift to singe the sky.
Puz naual haleb
They come they come for me
with pointed fangs
they call sword.
They’d love to spike my womb
yet hollow from their seed.
Puz naual haleb
If I am gone, there’s no one left to write
holy scrolls that sing song of time.