Our Lady of Sorrows
![](/images/features/1995.54.2_Mendieta-pintura.jpg)
Untitled, from the Silueta series, 1980, by Ana Mendieta
has appeared to the mountain
dwellers, her grief engraved
where stone softens to clay. Keep
your eyes sharp for a dagger.
In its hilt, you’ll find her face
pressed to the earth’s cheek. Kiss
this sacred spot before the rains
wash it away like her orphaned
feet. Notched heart cradles
a planet heavy with night-
mares flying into empty mouths.
Listen for their thirsty murmurs.
She’ll push her ponderous child
into the dew of a San Felipe dawn,
name him Salvador. They’ll rest
beneath a web spun umbilical,
eclipsed from our human eyes.
•
Our Lady
stone clay
earth
rain
orphaned
heart
eclipsed
Copyright Credit: You can read the rest of the PINTURA : PALABRA portfolio in the March 2016 issue of Poetry. All images in this portfolio are courtesy of and with permission from the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Untitled, from the Silueta series by Ana Mendieta, museum purchase through the Smithsonian Latino Initiatives Pool and the Smithsonian Institution Collections Acquisition Program © 1980, Estate of Ana Mendieta.
Source: Poetry (March 2016)