Cauldron Anthology Issue 9: They Who Were Spurned cauldron9finalproof | Page 21

Again, Women Tell Their Stories
E.M. Taylo r
Again, on the streets of Managua,
Leòn, Jinotepe, Masaya, women are telling
their stories. Women whose mothers told them
their stories, how the National Guard hunted
their sons, husbands, brothers. How Somoza
caged them next to the Presidential Palace, next
to his lions, his panthers. Genital electric shocks,
legs, arms, fingers blown off, all for Patria – Love
for this country of purring volcanos, lakes like seas,
trees laden with mango, tierra de pina, café, poesía.
Again on the streets women are carrying pots and pans,
clanging them like church bells – not for any God, but
for anyone who will listen to their outcry; carrying
placards of murdered children riddled with police
bullets, carrying hungry babies on their hips,
carrying hope, carrying rice, carrying rage.
#GritoporNicaragua. Hashtags speak a new language, while
old women gather in darkened doorways, pound
tortillas, fan the flames.
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Cauldron Anthology