Green Linden Press

A Prayer for Jakelin Amei Rosmery Caal Maquin (2011–2018)

A 7-year-old Guatemalan girl who died in the custody of U.S. Customs and Border Protection succumbed to 'a rapidly progressive infection' that shut down her vital organs, the medical examiner of El Paso County, Texas, concluded. —NBC News.com, 2019

Jakelin, give me your hand, your palm the petal of a calla lily. Now is the time to go and I will
guide you out of the desert. You can smile, we’re happy. I will take you to the table where we will
brush away the fallen cottonwood leaves and drink the good drinks waiting for us there. Your
mother will sit with you and your father will sit with you. You will touch your mother’s hand, a
calla lily, turn your face to the southern light, and your smile will rise to the top of the red canyon
wall.

Donna Castañeda is a graduate of the MFA program at Antioch University, Los Angeles, and currently lives in San Diego. Much of her work deals with the desert in California and the Southwest, its immense age and beauty, the U.S.-Mexico border region, and the natural world generally. Her work can be found in Metamorfosis: The Journal of Northwest Chicano Art and Culture, Journal of Undiscovered Poets, the San Antonio Review, and A Year in Ink.

ISSN 2472-338X
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