Iguana Flower
Translated by Marie García
You were a coffee flower all of your mornings
a stealthy flower every sunrise
with floating skirts, rustic sandals
you were a night of aguardiente
the peasant’s lament.
You smelled of pan dulce
basil and hierbabuena
of beans with totopos and carne de Chinameca
you smelled of perfume of oblivion
Florentina
of ripe fruit on the table
night and day.
Long were your braids and long-lived your customs
antique your tongue, antique your virtues
you were a woman with thick skin
iguana flower
you were the voice of miraculous Guadalupan
prayer.
Dance this sandunga, my Tehuana flower
wear your necklace of fine filigree
toast with mescal to love
my grandmother
toast to your death, toast to life
may the flowers in the graveyard
close no more... Florentina.
