Xochi Sarah Torribio Your name

Xochi

means flower

your hair is

red

as the face of

the Spaniard who

felled

a daughter of the sun

catching firewood You are 20 now and

burn

on the pyre of

a dark-haired man

unwind your hair

with a tortoise-shell

hush

butterflies from the

tangles of the day You are my rose-toed

vision

in a grotto sweating

tears

lava tumbles onto

your naked shoulders

you lift a

torch

in the face of all who knock

"Do you know how to worship?"

"Then go away."