To the Crying Venusians

dedicated to Ashley Santiago and Steven López Mercad
transexual women murdered in Puerto Rico

My skin shrieks, 
a cave dweller notified 
of yet another death, 

filaments by which the eagerness  
of penguins annihilate the last threads 
of memories dwindling in oceanic twilight.  

I did not want to leave 
a trail for redheaded dragons 
with fiery tongues to terrify

empty lighthouses, 
meadows and the jingles
of readers on my day 
of resurrection.

Queen Lazarus unwraps 
my feet with the grace
of a deer tutoring my hands 
in the art of dying.

Daddy, daddy, daddy
my knees are skin and bone.

I wear a pink triangle
and numbers tattooed 
around my ankle.

by Sergio Ortiz