Kidnapped, Wedding Night Abduction Poem by STANLEY PACION

A nightmare pulled you
From the bridal bed and out from the house;
You were screaming.

It carried you off through the wild desert.
Night had little moon;
Darkness hid the cacti,
Making them all the more dangerous to life and limb.

The temperature had dropped to freezing in the Sonora.

I could hear you cry my name.

I had been cheated at the moment when life's promise
Happiest, I felt the fulfillment of holy, holy prophecy.

Remember, please! I had been assured children;
One was to be monarch of new Golden Age,
A child to whom future ages might do homage.

I did not hesitate, but marshaled my forces
I frantically shouted with all my might, 'Help! '
I hoped to rescue you,
My beautiful wife, the love, the love of my life.

Still perfumed and boutonnière,
Heady with the day's excitement,
Like some native sorcerer, a shaman
Whose vision had been magically enhanced
Through ritual drink, I could see in the dark.
I ran headlong, inner light to guide me.

I chased the phantom that possessed you.

Your beauty, the allure of your physical self,
Your large brown eyes and olive complexion,
Your brunet tresses running down to your shoulders,
- drapery of oh-so-special, awesome pulchritude -
The thought of your high intelligence,
Its value to material success in my life,
Your undeniable charm, your grace,
The mercy, at core, inspiration of my poetic ambitions,
Propelled me, you, the dream of you,
It animated my heart and lungs with incredible vigor.

I and my comrades launched search after search,
Soon the whole community joined to assist,
For eight days we scoured landscape,
Reaching down into the most perilous ravines,
We walked the vast expanse for miles around.

In the heat people fell to the ground exhausted.

Old timers said that they had not witnessed such uproar,
Since the days when war Yaqui stole settler women,
Who never returned, rumor reported, because
Squaws knew better treatment among the lodges and
Tepees than in their own homes from first husbands.

We never found you.

I went to the priests and sought advice;
I prayed to the Savior, but it was no avail.

You were gone; we felt you were no longer with us.
I knew it, yet could not let you go. I pined.

I learned that time had never been a friend.

Because these, because all my efforts proved futile,
I am now a broken man, dead unto myself,
Unfit, and utterly homeless, my existence over,
Devastated, no other woman may ever have me.