a cachoeira lullaby.
By: doriana diaz
when I arrived it was just starting.
the music from under my window began to leap across the river.
harvesting sounds under the palm leaves.
the band played all night long as the children danced in circles.
the adults and grown folk sat at card tables on the cobble-
stones drinking beer, mesmerized by the sight in front of them.
we all joined them.
we sat down and ordered beers for the table, newly introduced
and unstrangering one another.
we all began to undress ourselves.
we needed no permission.
I saw black women of every shape, form, and dimension expose herself.
we spoke in our own languages.
we laughed and touched skin, running hands over every surface
until we were raw and smelt of each other’s home countries.
we were teaching each other how to fall in love.
we reached inside one another’s throats and pulled out
stories that needed no translations.
I felt sure something was coming.
that was the first night I ever saw the moon smile.
— doriana diaz
A Note From The Author
In the summer of 2019, I took a journey to Bahia Brazil to study. In my journey there, I met some of the most incredible Black women I have ever known. I have realized that to me, words mean more at night, I always find myself more eager and able to marvel at the wonder of my life when the rest of the world is silent. In writing this poem about Bahia, and the others I did after returning from the trip, I came to understand that it was magik, or the closest I have ever gotten to witnessing it. It was the first time I ever knew a sisterhood that spirit had created. We were all meant to be with one another through that experience, on that land, on that ocean, for the time we were. I don't know if I will see any of them again, but we have that time, and no one can ever take it away from us.