Carolina Hinojosa-Cisneros is a Tejana poet, freelance writer, and aspiring author. Her work focuses on Latinidad and faith. She is mom to three and wife to one. She is passionate about marginalized voices in both the church and in publishing. Her work can be found in The Acentos Review, The Lookout Magazine, Rock & Sling: a journal of witness, and more. She is a monthly contributor at The Mudroom and runs a regular blog at cisneroscafe.org. Follow her on Twitter at @CisnerosCafe.
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Self-Portrait as Bone
______for L. K. Tuffaha
Broken in four places
At the joint,
______where ma came home
______with another man,
______desperate for the shade
______of a family tree.
Under the marrow,
______where my thighs
______welcomed
______a man
______I did not want.
Between the cavity,
______where the matriarch
______pinched the eagle’s beak,
______abuela said, “Te lo dije.
______Por andariega.”
In the cartilage,
______where I am mother
______and stranger
______both
______the same.
The Unwelcome
Doubt chose the curtains,
undressed our home like
a carcass ready for burial.
I made love to doubt when
it left behind sinewy broken
hearted attempts. I drew a bath
without seafoam promise.
I let it choose canela in mami’s
rice water. I stuck my dirty
tongue in doubt, offered it purple
pens to write my sorrows twice.
I grabbed its working hand,
kissed it like sudden death held
its lying gaze. I pierced its rib
cage, pulled a sacrament for my
wet bosom and sent it on its way.
