Tears drained into knotted veins
Thin skin stretched over the drum of your heart
Words spoken backwards into birds nests and crocodile skulls
Egg yolk, bird of paradise's stolen fever cure
Fried with green butter and gritty salt
The lemon rind band-aids in your
Traveling first-aid kit
Are falling apart and leaking into
Sore eyes and red spots on
Dark skin, hushed by foliage and a
A bitter sun, singing diseases into trees
And throats
A never-never land of scars and broken teeth
Machetes slicing soft skin in the belly of the night
Leaves lapping up screams and streams of blood
Curl around snapped fingers and clumps of hair
Tubers of flesh growing in the rich soil
Of this forest home
Eating the rotting meat of their own,
And leaving scorpion presents in cowboy boots,
Sore heels are a small price to pay
For this El Dorado