Natalie Diaz, 'Why I Don’t Mention Flowers'

[duathir.livejournal.com]

Why I Don’t Mention Flowers When Conversations With My Brother Reach Uncomfortable Silences

"Forgive me, distant wars, for bringing flowers home."
-Wislawa Szymborska


In the Kashmir Mountains,
my brother shot many men,
blew skulls from brown skins,
dyed white desert sand crimson.
Were there flowers there? I asked.

This is what he told me:
In a village, many men
wrapped a woman in a sheet.
She didn't struggle.
Her bare feet dragged in the dirt.
They laid her in the road
and stoned her.

The first man was her father.
He threw two stones in a row.
Her brother had filled his pockets
with stones on the way there.

The crowd was a hive
of disturbed bees. The volley
of stones against her body
drowned out her moans.

Blood burst through the sheet
like a patch of violets,
a hundred roses in bloom.

by Natalie Diaz