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jewels


by Kitty Boots


to eat the heart of a hummingbird
still beating
while crimson drops of blood fall
to the nest

it is said to make your manliness last forever
and I've seen these birds
faded metallic crusts of what they once were
laid out on a table
entwined into necklaces of brown, toothless curanderos

to make their women want them more
washing clothes in the coffee-colored river
nursing fevered children

as they search for emeralds among the stones


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