De Mujer a Mujer by Lisbeth Coiman
To Venezuela.
Mujer, I talk to you without hair on my tongue
As clear as this blue sky over our heads
Here is a mojito
Take a sip
I don’t have a drawer inside to hold unspoken truths
Young, attractive, educated,
and fucking rich
You ain’t anything but naïve.
You have fallen in every trap.
First, they hit on you
Wrap you around their pinky fingers
As soon as you spread your legs
they beat you
Kidnap you
Rape you
Enslave you
Starve you.
Not to enjoy your body,
Mind you, it’s hot.
All they want is to live on your back
Fucking pimps
Fanning their testicles
Dilapidating your infinite wealth
Is that mojito strong enough?
Easy, mujer.
I want you alert.
Not drunk.
Me echó tierrita en los ojos.
Yeah right. See where his sweet talk brought you.
You’ve become a beggar in rags
Eating from the garbage truck
Stretching to the right hoping for a hand-out to feed your brood.
No puedo ver a tantos niños muriendo de hambre.
Look at the one who says he’ll defend you
While waving his friends flags, not yours
Look at his watch, his private jet, his meals,
feasts for kings.
Where do you think that comes from?
His door-to-door sales of Avon products?
His driving a bus?
Su verdadera cara escondida detrás de una bandera caduca.
Every time a new jack shows up at your door
Warming up your ears
You fall to same old trick
And show him your black gold well.
Now, it seems that you woke up
Learning to play this complicated chess game
Just to make the world pay attention to your sorrow.
Good for you. It’s a small step in the right direction
Now, stop being such a pendeja.
Get your children together
And set yourself free.
Lizbeth Coiman is a bilingual writer from Venezuela, standing on a blurred line between mental health and immigration. She also writes for Venezuela, the land of her youth, Venezuela's landscape always present behind her eyelashes when she closes her eyes to sleep at night. Her work has been published in Entropy, Nailed, The Literary Kitchen, and Rabid Oaks, among other online magazines and journals. Her book, I Asked the Blue Heron: A Memoir, 2017, explores the intersection between mental illness and immigration, celebrates friendship, and draws attention to child abuse. She's an active member of Women Who Submit - Los Angeles, and Womxn's Write Inn, in Long Beach, CA. She teaches English as a Second Language to adult students in Los Angeles. She also dances salsa to beat depression.