Have You Spoken

Coagulate is a beautiful word, co-

meaning together and -agulate, the eponymous

heroics once perpetrated by Agula

under grandmother’s yak-skin tent. Aristocracy

was a gorgeous demand; her mouth

jellied with the gristle of wild duck. Like this,

history’s women create words. Hygiene from the story

of Hygienea the wise midwife who rang the birthing cloth

with acidic fats. Confidence means “with Fidencia”

the Frankish bulwark who stood against

the czar and folded the edicts into insects. Pageant from full-lipped

Pagean who charmed waterfalls into rainbows. Sojourn

from the woman who walked the Americas, praying

like the ravens in Aztlán. Yasmin, tomorrow

we will speak you, beyazzed with blessings,

yasminified from fear incarnate.