cassandra de alba
in which la llorona is not looking for her children after all
& why must a woman be a mother in order to grieve where we can see her?
& why is the weeping woman always missing someone else & not a part of herself?
& why must the woman in white be a bride scorned
& not married to the night’s empty air?
she says give me back my daughters
but she means i live with regret
she says give me back my daughters
but she means a future seemed possible
she says give me back my daughters
but she means i drowned the girl in me who knew hope
she says give me back my daughters
but she means what i am owed does not exist
she means i would swallow the river and still die of thirst
Cassandra de Alba’s work has appeared in Big Lucks, Gabby, Smoking Glue Gun, and Tinderbox, among other publications. Her chapbooks habitats (Horse Less Press, 2016) and ORB (Reality Hands, 2018) are about deer and the moon, respectively. She is a co-host at the Boston Poetry Slam at the Cantab Lounge and an editor at Pizza Pi Press.