I Have Roads In Me, Jimmy Santiago Baca

I HAVE ROADS IN ME

winding within my arteries

into distant hills

of memories,

where dreams float like dandelion fibers

on bright, chill, breezy

mornings under a canopy

of cottonwood branches.

Where leaves glimmer

sunlight

roads turn.

I have roads in me

where drums pound a sacrifice

and beckon

to again believe in life’s wonder,

where I lean the intense passion,

seeing the sparkling, dewdripping

leaves upon moist, pine-needled ground.

My heart restored,

I am guided

by stars

and a raging desire to live.

Jimmy Santiago Baca, en Singing at the Gates: Selected Poems (2014), 109.