by Rosario Castellanos
translated by Judith Infante
The ax that felled
forever the fragrance
and the tree taken
with its torso severed.
Now here you are, under a roof,
in the corner of a bedroom
and guests take you for granted
and, you seem to accept it
and to keep still.
Don't sell away your memory
to sad routines and to time.
Do not forget the woods
or the wind or the birds.
from The Tree is Older Than You Are:
A Bilingual Gathering of Poems and Stories
from Mexico With Paintings by Mexican Artists
Selected by Naomi Shihab Nye
Simon & Schuster, 1998
