They say el alacrán güero can kill
you. That’s what they say.
Of all the scorpions that exist,
the white one is the deadliest.
One sting
makes the tongue thick,
asphyxiates.
Before you know it,
you are another
femme fatality.
Beware el alacrán güero
whose grief arrives delayed.
Even if all your life
you’d been warned.
Even if you’d snuffed
your eyes to their beauty
like a passionate Saint Lucy.
You are not immune.
Unaware is how Death
will find you. Coiled
in your righteous sleep.
Stand the bed in cans of water.
Look before you leap.
Beware el alacrán güero,
I tell you.
I know of what I speak.