Quotes from Carmen Tafolla

marked Never write with pencil, m'ija. It is for those who would erase. Make your mark proud and open, Brave, beauty folded into its imperfection, Like a piece of turquoise marked. Never write with pencil, m'ija. Write with ink or mud, or berries grown in gardens never owned, or, sometimes, if necessary, blood.

I have slipped chile under your skin secretly wrapped in each enchilada hot and soothing carefully cut into bitefuls for you as a toddler increasing in power and intensity as you grew until it could burn forever