these things even make me cry - because my Momitas would have been so proud.

Dear Kelly,

We are pleased to announce this year’s Oracle selections and happy to inform you that your work, "Garden", has been selected for publication in the 2009 Oracle. We truly appreciate your patience as our staff has toiled with the difficult selection process.
Michelle Ladner
Oracle Editor-in-chief
and the 2009 Oracle Staff

This is the poem...

Garden
he borrows her violence
bending and twisting
around his wrists
tangling the words he trips over
asking her to escape from this
the vines blossom rapidly
their stalks at the roots thicker than maple
reaching and thinning out
in an effervescent attempt for humanity
younger versions are born
and spread from amidst their waists
effortless spawning in a timeless whirl
his seconds bear upon her hours
leaves spreading brown mist
carpeting the sodden ground
replacing serenity with trouble
in a mix of limbs and branches
he drops his borrowed vigor
undoing time like a hundred desert summers
withering beneath a violent thousand degrees
the ground recalls what had been released
her garden dies in the time it took her to breathe
she holds the dirt like a lover's embrace
he tells her again to try to escape.

Kelly Curiel
February 1, 2008