Madre de Maiz 

"Her lines tell stories.    

Starvation and plenty balance 

Beauty beneath the bone. 

Radiant Reyna who has renounced

fashion trends and crash diets.

Who has accepted the 

Responsibility of timelessness.  

Having held children and worked rightly 

since the beginning and even rebounded 

After a life-long relationship with death, 

Respect is expected. 

With the breath of life in her breast 

And the light of acceptance in her heart, 

All she sows grows, la madre de maíz. 

Nuestro verdad. 

Muchas gracias por su cariño,  

Your crying, your dying and resurrection 

Of the sun some sixty summers ago.

The way you stare is a stairway to heaven. 

Having walked across celestial

jungles, oceans and deserts, 

You have shed more myths

And made more magic 

Than we can possibly ever comprehend. 

Master of disguise. Keeper of lies. 

Pain and anguish that you will never show. 

To behold such beauty is to bear fruit. 

And said fruit shall feed roots 

As these roots keep us connected. 

Laughter almost undetected. 

Subtle signs 

of love."

-- Poem by Joseph Jason Santiago LaCour 

-- Painting by Rica Smith de la Luz