in the beginning there were orange blossoms

in the beginning there were towering palm trees

in the beginning there was the heavy morning dew

and the screams and songs of urracas and cenzontles

golondrinas and ruiseñores chachalacas and palomas

everything here is loved by a sun bright like a burning candle

by the wind convinced ferocity is the only way to show passion

by the blue sky stretching everywhere so immense so immense

the horizons hardly seem able to contain it and the volcanic sunsets

threaten to spill over and then the nights so sweet so dark all stars

this is the earth i think of when i think of what earth smells like

i say tierra mojada and mean only one place in the world

if i am made of earth this is the earth i am made of

rio grande rio verde the trees on both banks sway in the same

wind and the wind carries the scent of salt of ocean of life

my body will be buried farther north those 300 miles far

enough for the land to change but not the sun the sun is the

same in the end oak trees will touch the mesquites and huizaches

in the end the urracas will share the sky with blue jays and cardinals in

the end the earth will not be as dark or fragrant but still ancestor earth

but even then i will dream of accordions and bajo sextos of cumbias

and huapangos and polkas i will dream of frijolitos a la charra and

fajitas and mariscos and tortillas recien hechas de mano i will dream

of fertile fields blooming and verdant the swaying of sugarcane

stalks green so green in the burning time transformed

into a million wisps of winged ash in the sky