OCTAVIO QUINTANILLA – Exiles

Exiles     

In that continent

            where my name sounds strange

where the O in Octavio

                        is a mouth opening inward

In that continent

            where I cease to be the ocean

                        that separates us

and I become the river

where your mother

washed your hair

                        when you were a child

Find me there,

                        in the water you drink

In the dog barking

at the rain

In the eyes of the men

                        who look like me

In that continent

                        I imagine you with the O

of my name

                        in your belly

and you ask me to take you

                        by the hand and lead you

to the place

                        of your ebbing

Once there,

                        show me kindness

And offer me your left breast,

            hold it in your hand like a star

 tearing itself with light

There, baptize my forehead

                        with your saliva

Erase who I am

                        and give me a new name

One you can recognize

in the lips

            of the wind

One that your father

                        can pronounce

Let the continent

            where you were born be

the last wound of my life,

a wound that never heals

            and grips my body

with the strength memory grips

                        the hand

of the one true love      

                            we ever had…

Octavio Quintanilla – 2016