Elixir Poem by Rosalinda Flores Martinez

My grandmother makes brew
Paregoric, Merthiolate, Penicillin

Her hands quick day and night
concocting for the only botica
Farmacia Luz.

'A forbidden island! ' they tell
with only myths of mermaids
and encantos -
grows an elixir of seaweeds, gold, and
working hands stretched
over the Pacific Ocean

A fountain of spring sprinkles
in a town once alien

'Hare mo kami paglingawan, O Maria.
Hare mo kami pabayaan huli ta kami sa imong aki.'

And whatever becomes of innocence
is a grip between the thighs of mountains
in my grandmother's home of virgin islands
nature has become our free hands
our brave hands
and the big-boned giant.