Yovani Flores
Her Saguaro Shadow
Mami carried us in her bronzed arms
the dead horizon laughed and the mango sun carved jagged lines
from shoulder to shoulder etching our history across her back
she squats pissing over sun bitten stones
chunks of smoky gravel dangled on her calloused feet like lumps of clotted blood
her palms kissing a dead horizon stretching her trunk
like a giant Saguaro with thick arms and bended elbows
shadowing our soldered bodies
and we plucked prickly pears from thorny arms de Doña Nopal
and she laughed cradling her pink sticky children
and they danced and dangled from her rounded hips
Yovani Flores
Yovani Flores is a Puerto Rican poet, creative writer from Chicago, Illinois and daughter of Puerto Rican parents who migrated to Chicago during the 1960’s race riots. Flores’s work is rooted in storytelling, giving voice to subjects of historic silence. Her first short story, El Llorón debuted in Chicana/Latina Studies - the Journal of MALCS. Flores received Short Story Award for El Llorón by Curbside Splendor Publishing and featured in NPR's: All Things Considered. Yovani Flores lives and writes in Phoenix, Arizona where poets and artists flourish and inspire movements.