APOLINARIA LORENZANA
California, 1800
I am the youngest
of twenty-one orphans
sent to Alta California
from Mexico City
to be given away
like puppies.
All our lives, we’ve lived
as sisters and brothers,
but now we’re suddenly separated,
older girls handed out as wives,
and young ones like me given
as housemaids, while boys
go to mission soldiers
to serve as ranch hands
on the land they receive
in exchange for enslaving
los indios
of many tribes.
•
Fearfully, quietly, I learn
how to sew and cook the way priests demand,
and nurse the sick,
read a little bit,
and fashion pretty flowers
from scraps of smooth cloth.
There should always be
at least one beautiful
silk blossom
in each
lonely
orphan’s
tragic
life.