Yohl Ik'nal as Seed, Flower, and Fruit
(My body heals from hunger)
Yohl Ik’nal, second self, born from crimson
pulse; you grow beyond my body, where I
do not exist. I feel you when I crave.
You savor what I cannot eat. You keep
my bones guarded from despair. You hold my
marrow sacred. By my mouth, you smother
what destroys. You feed me as the famished,
the displaced; the refugee. You nourish
in me our grandmother, denied her land,
her skin, her voice; sacred stone and water.
You are my inheritance when I consume
the seed, the flower, and the fruit. You know
my lifted arms, my palms, my knees.
I eat — my throat grows a second womb
Yohl Ik’nal, second self, born from crimson
pulse; you grow beyond my body, where I
do not exist. I feel you when I crave.
You savor what I cannot eat. You keep
my bones guarded from despair. You hold my
marrow sacred. By my mouth, you smother
what destroys. You feed me as the famished,
the displaced; the refugee. You nourish
in me our grandmother, denied her land,
her skin, her voice; sacred stone and water.
You are my inheritance when I consume
the seed, the flower, and the fruit. You know
my lifted arms, my palms, my knees.
I eat — my throat grows a second womb
November / December 2022
Jen Yáñez-Alaniz identifies as Chicanx, Mestiza. She advocates for human rights as a community organizer facilitating equity-driven cultural conversations focused on the preservation of language, language literacy, and food traditions. She is the co-creator of Loving, Grieving, & Surviving /Chicanas Read the Poetry of Healing and co-founder of Welcome: A Poetry Declaration. A Pushcart nominee for her work, "Matrilineal Poetics: Toward an Understanding of Corporeality and Identity is featured in Latinas in Hollywood Herstories." Her latest and forthcoming publications are included in The Journal of Latina Critical Feminism, Cutthroat: Puro Chicanx Writers of the 21st Century, South Dakota Review, Rogue Agent Journal, Mom Egg Review, and more.
Art: Flowers in a Creamcheese Glass. Oil on canvas. T. Aguilera.