By Gala
Date: 10 December 1999

Querida

The first time he used that word
instead of my name
I felt a charge of light
explode in my chest
spreading to me very fingers and toes
and wrapping me in a scarf
of dancing Northern Lights.

Sweetheart. Darling. Lover.
yes, it means those things---
but in that crystaline moment
it became the name
of the crazy woman 
who dances to the beat of drums,
the name I hug to myself
in lines, 
or traffic
or when the world crowds me in.

You might be a drone---
Or a honcho,
Or the Bill Gates of what you do---
But to one man,
I am Querida---
and you can't do a damned thing about it!