Elegy Del Sweet Pasado

There was a weed in the fields
behind the farmhouse

my mother called la mala mujer
because it would prick you

like a man she said
as she labored sunbonnet covering her head

in the cornfield
chopping away the yerbas

so that the corn
could enjoy

every bit of rain that fell from hell
and later

hacking off the tops
of the cornstalks

when the corn
was ready to be harvested

her machete
glistening in the sun.