by José Luis Mendoza
Finally, it rained in San Miguel. How important is our Mother Water. Here I offer you some verses to inspire love for and to remind us how Water is for us, and how poorly we treat her. I hope they make you think as deeply as they did me.
***
Water, blood of my land,
liquid and pristine love,
that defines my path
when it descends from the mountains.
In its strength, it holds
a mystical breath of life,
when the clay is hurt,
exhausted and in drought,
both by night and by day,
it craves your love, it is in need.
You flow warmly and playfully
among the furrows and hills,
the calf jumps with joy,
the palm tree, the hen,
the pig and the sow.
The mockingbird sings happily,
splashing in the red soil,
the loving peasant,
filled with moist delight,
blesses you on the horizon.
Cloudy skies,
with their tears and breath,
embrace the gray cement
and already torn buildings.
They bathe houses and markets,
leaving the city cleansed,
truly beautiful,
a fluid mantle and shawl,
leave our hearts in bloom
with their moist goodness.
Not so the sly man,
who enslaves and sells you,
and the fool does not understand
that he darkens his own destiny.
Staining your divine,
clean and pure heart,
with arsenic and fluoride,
with soap and plastic,
thus giving a drastic twist
to his already dark future.
And from the long cloud,
clean and renewed rain,
it descends, full of excitement,
to deliver its pure cargo,
but its soul remains bitter
seeing the empty fields,
all barren and desolate,
due to new fertilizers,
chemicals, contaminants,
dry and gloomy clods.
Who will be the good man
who will come to save you soon?
Cleansing every place,
both his own and others'.
Removing all poison,
caring for your fragile being,
on the verge of fainting.
Who will lovingly embrace you?
Who will reject these harmful practices,
and help you be reborn?
