NYU Black Renaissance Noire NYU Black Renaissance Noire Vol 17.2: Fall 2017 | Page 16
CARLA
m
Sandra Cisneros
and Ishmael Reed.
Spain, 2004.
Instructions for My Funeral Sky Without A Hat
For good measure,
smoke me with copal.
Shroud me in my raggedy rebozo.
No jewelry. Give to friends.
No coffin. Instead petate.
Ignite to “Disco Inferno.” I’m going to sell
the San Miguel sky,
this jacaranda blue
that suits perfectly
clay roofs.
Allow no Christian rituals
for this bitch, but, if
you like, you may invite
a homeless dog to sing,
or a witch woman to spit
orange water and chant
an Otomí prayer.
Send no ashes north
of the Rio Bravo
on penalty of curse.
I belong here,
under Mexican maguey,
beneath a carved mesquite
bench that says Ni Modo.
Smoke a Havana.
Music, a la Fellini.
Above all,
laugh.
And don’t
forget,
Of course, it’s available.
Absolutely and for sure.
Here everything is for
sale, rent, lease.
Mountain,
prickly pear,
stone,
hacienda,
woman,
mud.
I’ll sell sky
by the slice.
Charge foreigners
double
for doubling
the cost of living.
Attention!
Sky without shade for sale, this
celestial blue in bad need of a hat.
And,
if all goes as planned,
and I’m inspired,
Clouds For Rent.
spell
my name
with mezcal.
© 2017 by Sandra Cisneros.
By permission of Susan Bergholz
Literary Services, New York
City and Lamy, NM. All rights
reserved. No part of these
poems may be reproduced in
any manner whatsoever
without written permission.