Pintados

Thorns dipped in ink from soot and 
ashes, ancient rituals for drawing

on the body. Once, only the brave 
were marked with sequences of rills 

and rivers, bands crossing their wrists 
and lower arms. Breastplates mimic 

the scales of centipedes or lizards—
All we want is to be aligned with

light and its protective webs, before
we return to the earth that moulded us.