Paloma Zozaya

Paloma Zozaya is a novelist, poet and performance artist born in Mexico. Her first novel, in Spanish Redencion was published by Victorina Press in 2019 and in 2021 in English as Harutu Woman.

Only when you start withering

you notice your roots are drying,

dying,

then you might choose to sing to todas las brujas and remember:

comes the lullaby humming softly like the Rio Bravo

at the beginning of spring,

tales in tow,

of All who attempted the crossing.

I lay my espinita de nopal,

that sharp stabbing little accent

that hides under my plumage

like a cockerel spur,

across the parched river bed

so that the water, when it comes,

will blunt its edge,

I sing and wait.