J. Mae Barizo

SHE FELT NO SHADOW SHOULD FALL UPON HER

There was a mad priest from Spain who impregnated women
in the village, among them my great-great-grandmother who as
the favored concubine was given the surname Miraflores, which
translates to “Look at the flower!” Description of Miraflores
in legend is high romance: “Miraflores, fountain-girded, where
the trees are many-birded… Miraflores name of beauty! May I
earn a lover’s duty.” In Don Quixote, Miraflores was an ancient
house and in its garden Oriana felt no further shadow should fall
upon her, raising hopes for my children’s children who will
have a different name dear colonizer, dear despoiler of my
ancestors, now that you are dead and almost forgotten with
your priest’s habit and hungry cock and your dazzling Philippine
art collection and I am left here to procreate, to recreate this
history, my oppressor my settler my colonizer, my love

J. MAE BARIZO is the author of The Cumulus Effect (Four Way). A poet, essayist, and sound artist, she has recently published work in Bellevue Literary Review, Los Angeles Review of Books, and Poetry. She has collaborated with such artists as Salman Rushdie, Rob Moose, and the American String Quartet. Born in Toronto, she lives in New York City and teaches at the Pratt Institute and the New School.