For the Mesa Eleven

Beginning on February 2, 2009, when a woman found a bone sticking out of the ground on a mesa in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the remains of women keep being found. As of yet, no one has come to any answers about how many women were killed, why these women were killed and how they came to be buried in the desert.

Mica Valdez, an Oakland based writer, remembers the women with her poem, ¨Take these Flowers.¨

half circle brick wall Albuquerque sky

red headbands tied around foreheads

color of life

childhood teddy bears gold

cardboard framed photos

with marker

plastic pink flowers shake

sand

stinging wet eyes

tears fall

down lined red-earth cheeks

a father wearing flannel long sleeve mourns

behind black mirrors

smoking copal rises

from lacquer stone

boy blows conch toward Las Sandias

names are called out

Michelle Valdez

Cinnamon Elk

eleven lost Indias

found in the desert Mesa

prayer songs and petals lift up and around

Recibe estas flores

Con gusto y anhelo

que son escalones

que llegan al cielo