When She Made Tortillas With One Hand

“What is the sound of one hand slapping tortillas?”
                              ancient Mexican koan

In her fifties, my grandmother’s right arm became paralyzed,
and not even a curandera could make it work again.

The witch doctor finally gave up---
love potion number nine didn’t love.

The shaman put sun-spit on it,
but, chale, vato, nothing seemed to help.

La Virgen de Guadalupe
y La Virgen de San Juan appeared dumbfounded.

In her sixties, her arm healed itself.
Indeed, the god of paralization works in mysterious ways.