~
The Lady Llorona
Passes near here –

Beware!
My Dear Son,

The Crocodile Tears!

Take “No!”
As your answer.

Y Tenga Cuidado!
Si como se dice –

“Watch out for the Lady.”

I’ll give you a tale,
It’s high-time you knew

The Modern Medea,
Dark Angel of Hell.

I’ve waited to now,
But Now’s overdue –

Fruition and Prudence
First needed from you.

You’ve heard the low sounds,
The most part of Life –

A low level rustle
That comes in the night.

The sound is accursed!
It cuts like a knife!

This are the sounds
Of once a young wife.

She calls from the river,
The river of sand –

A river much like
The Nile of its land.

A river of promise,
As silt over sand,

The mighty long river:
Our own Rio Grande.

To listen most closely,
You’ll soon hear it clear –

The wailing and crying,
The stream of ghost tears.

La Señora Llorona
Wanders near here

Every night unto day,
Evermore, every year.

A story of Grief,
The torment she bears –

It comes as what follows
The tale given here:

~
Years upon years,
Many years, long ago,

Lived once the Lady
Of New Mexico.

So fair was the maiden!
Far fairer, unknown.

And she loved but one man!
Just one man alone:

Dom Juan San Diego,
Inamorato!

Of all the young ladies
Of New Mexico.

Un grande Caballero!
He loved them all so.

This tale’s of one love
That never let go.

The Lady Llorona,
Se dice Hermosa:

Muy Linda, this Lady,
Of New Mexico.

But Lady Llorona
Was married to plan –

Los Patrones had sanctioned
A much elder man.

His cause, her beauty;
Her’s was the Duty

A young wife,
For Life!

This was the custom;
Such, her intention.

Much was respected,
Of landed tradition.

El Señor, fue muy suerte!
A fortunate man!

For Señor, he had won
The enchanted hand

Of Señora Llorona,
Far fairest of land.

And felicity Rang!
Good fortune it brang

And rained on the family
The elders arraigned.

Of children amassed,
Tres came to pass –

Un hijo
y double
las hijas.

Y el Señor, perhaps never knew
His Lady was true brujería.

Their problems were few,
Where fortune just grew!

All due
To la bruja’s mysteria.

And years upon end,
Good luck she would spin,

For herself, her friends,
And familia.

~
And all went quite well,
As the story gets told,

Till one day that fell
And magic unfold.

A power unknown,
Un-shown, to Llorona:

A magical force
To test, or endorse,

Tradition, convention –
Spousal Devotion!

A reversal of Fortune
Was never in notion,

To enter the mind
Of Llorona.

But then her esposo
Had other negocio –

Business in length
At much a long distance,

Dom Juan San Diego’s
Presence come in!

Thus, would commence
And troubles begin

La peripeteia
De brujerîa!

With el Señor gone,
The two got along;

And when he returned,
It was then when he learned

Of Dom Juan’s
And Llorona’s
Love interests.

For, both had demurred
To love, and concurred

A las citas
Secretas
Amores.

And Love has its sway!
Ensnares everyday,

Insatiable desire
By fire.

The demiurge
At play!
Here had its way –

In body and soul
Acquires.

Dom Juan San Diego
Embodied the Fuego,

La Señor Llorona
Fell into.

The Fire still burned,
Long after he spurned,

Abandoned, and turned
To El Paso.

~
A Cold Air returns
O’er that which is burned,

But fire,
Still sputters –
Remains!

Detached now,
Is changed!
It’s all rearranged!

Love becomes different
Where Love is Estranged:

Bereft of besotted,
Overly wroughted,
The light that enlivened….

Now Gone!

And the Burden gets darker;
Heavier, starker;

The weight of self-sorrow!
The wasting away!

The Resolve to Recover….

O! Piteous Lover!

And Torment grows Stronger….
Till one autumn day.

And Then!
By Despair,
All end to Welfare –

The Lady Llorona,
Much like Medea,

Her own day
The same way,

Foul! Vilified!

Took her small children
Down to the river,

There for to kill them –
O! Dear mother!

Vile! Filicide!

~
Thus! then, my Son,
The Modern Medea.

Woe ends the tale
Of Lady Llorona.

Neither Heaven nor Hell
May the Lady there dwell:

Condemned then spend
To Eternity’s end,

To roam all alone
The old Rio Grande;

Searching, yet weeping,
Forever in keeping

The cost of her offspring –
Forever! Evermore….

Be Damned!
~

©2013, Marvin Loyd Welborn
Revised 28 June 2013 Revised 4 November 2013. 18 October 2014.