WORTH MY WEIGHT IN PRICKLY PEARS
WORTH MY WEIGHT IN PRICKLY PEARS
By Daniel Arias
In response to my broken heart
My therapist says I have a golden one
Reminding me golden hearts attract
golden hearts
This will pass
pass
pass
Maybe it's the Mexican in me
Some days
I feel a nopal beating in my chest
A prickly pear
No bright red bulb of fruit here
I gave this pitaya away
To the first taker
And they left
Lesson
This nopal is ordinary
Wide flat and green
Paddles reaching for the sun
In prayer
Even at night
Lesson
Covered by espinas
Self-defense
It carries the desert's only rival to gold—
Water
Growing so many prickly spines
Refusing to be eaten
Imagine being that fucking stubborn
Lesson
Mi Mami cleaned them with a knife
Since the only way
To beat something sharp
Is with something sharper
Hurt what hurts you
Lesson
“Some days
I feel a nopal beating in my chest
A prickly pear”
She left it bald on the counter
Covered in shallow wet patches
Clinging to tears
It was sliced
Tragedy
Blended for mi Apa’s licuado
A prayer to lower his cholesterol
Answered
That's better than gold
Lesson
Mi Mami’s favorite recipe
A pico de gallo with
One-inch squares of diced nopales
Chewy rubbery texture
Slimy gelatin interior
I hardly ate it
Forgot
My ancestors must be ashamed
I rejected this
Native nopal—
Myself
Remember
To make sustenance out of
This deserted plant
That's better than gold
Lesson
This heart will heal
I’m made for this and more
This nopal
nopal
nopal
I can make gold out of anything
Even this hurt
Lesson
