Remedio: Yerba de Vibora (Snakeweed)

For unwelcomed visions, make an amulet from the herb’s freshly cut yellow flowers and stems. One worn until the visions cease. A poultice will suffice for seasons other than fall. Be sure to christen the patient before treatment, never after. Should the unwanted visions persist, summon the services of a good priestess without too much delay.

ξ

Susto

Susto (Spanish) (‘sus•to): n.m. fright, shock 
–New World Spanish/English Dictionary 

◊◊◊

In one 
I’m watching me burn 

the robe mother
died in

in another
it’s some man singing

Here I am Lordnaked

in a field
years fallow the songs

wiry shadow
off eating

halfdead 
funeral flowers

in the arroyo
nearby 

◊◊◊

What if I stay like this
going around

naming every 
open grave Dolores 

after the drunk lady who almost 
drowned me

Dolor Spanish for pain and for

the sight of her up 
in the treetops

a la Teresa 
de Avila

Light blue
light coming out of

her eyes and 
mouth

But only when
the music stops 

◊◊◊

All those faces in
the floor

All those
little black rocks I keep finding

in my bed
In my mouth

Maria Santisima believe me
I’ve kissed

every baby
Jesus in this house

Blessed every locked
window

and door
no matter

how loud and
backwards

the words got
Now what

◊◊◊

You leaving the orchard
gate open 

to welcome 
the first frost 

the surest way to offend 
the god of ruin 

You and a basket of bellflowers 
naming them one

by one in 
the cool cellardark 

You picking apricots
in the corner 

of the living 
room enrobed in moon 

light enough 
to mum you 

◊◊◊

No wind
no ticking sounds

No ticking sounds 
no memory 

of the life 
of the fly I never got around 

to naming 
No life 

then no need to keep
cursing 

god the 
fever the trees 

This drafty
nailedshut window

ξ

Tommy Archuleta is a mental health counselor for the New Mexico Corrections Department. He lives and writes on the Cochiti Reservation. His work has appeared in Manzanita Quarterly, Pleiades, The Laurel Review, and most recently, in the Poem-a-Day series sponsored by the Academy of American Poets. The above pieces are from Archuleta’s in-progress book-length poem titled, Susto.