Enjoy a Poem from Borders
"Mora confronts the clash of cultures in a courageous, tough tone that masks a gentle sensibility. What finally gives this book its healing power is the mesmerizing honesty of Mora’s celebration of herself as a woman, mother, lover."
—The Bloomsbury Review
Desert Women
Desert women know
Fierce heat and cold
have burned and thickened
our skin. Like cactus
we’ve learned to hoard,
to sprout deep roots,
to seem asleep, yet wake
at the scent of softness
in the air, to hide
pain and loss by silence,
no branches wail
or whisper our sad songs
safe behind our thorns.
Desert women know
Fierce heat and cold
have burned and thickened
our skin. Like cactus
we’ve learned to hoard,
to sprout deep roots,
to seem asleep, yet wake
at the scent of softness
in the air, to hide
pain and loss by silence,
no branches wail
or whisper our sad songs
safe behind our thorns.
Don’t be deceived.
When we bloom, we stun.
©Pat Mora
