Goodbye, Sandra Cantu

where are you? you were in
river why always inside river
water what is is about a body
of moving water that relinquishes the motions

of a murderer. they believe water
will take the baby and she will be gone
gone gone. they are wrong. little she is pulled
from the lap, released into custody, tenderly attended

to. each person that touches her
is too late. your mother remembers
nothing yet. she is erased and every second
of her life from now on will be new in the oldest way.

when the pain begins
like chemo, into her veins and heart
it will burn her. it will burn her up alive.
she will be held and loved and it will eat her away.

this is nature's way of protesting
an abomination, that a child should die
before her parents. that a child should die.
that a child should be murdered and left alone in the river

packed up inside a suitcase.
her arms and her legs, the place of soft
in her armpit, the soft of her lips, the soft,
unbearable soft of a little girl, made suitcase

your father is caved in
old man every man becomes
if his child is taken from him
by man turned into beast
your father is the oldest
man alive, and he will stay
alive only because he will,
and not for any other reason that we make up

like hope. he is simply alive
where are you simply gone your mother your father they wait to find out ////////
to see you again will you know my name

i believe i see you in river
water and your mother's heart
i feel your father's heart i feel i am leaving this
as ( _ ___ no )


i believe half of the people reading
this will have begun to stop, and their
veins harden and they can hear the sound
of the river moving over a baby in the suitcase

and because they are afraid
hearts might burst open
bleed to the point of exhaustion
or death, they cannot know about this

they cannot love you.
if the definition of love
only extends to those we
touch and know, we are going

to have these babies in the water forever.

maggie may ethridge april 7th 2009



(CNN) -- Police said they are pursuing leads in the death of 8-year-old Sandra Cantu, whose body was found Monday stuffed into a suitcase in a dairy-farm pond near her Tracy, California, home. Sandra Cantu, 8, disappeared March 27. Her body was found at a dairy-farm pond near her Calilfornia home.

Sandra Cantu, 8, disappeared March 27. Her body was found at a dairy-farm pond near her Calilfornia home.

"We are heading in a direction," Tracy police Sgt. Tony Sheneman told reporters. "To comment on that would compromise the investigation, and I can't do that."

A search warrant was executed at the Tracy mobile home park where the girl lived, and a related search was to be conducted Tuesday at a nearby church, he said.

He implied more than one person may have been involved in the death of Sandra, who had been missing since March 27.

The day Sandra was last reported seen, she returned home from school, kissed her mother and left to play with a friend who lives nearby. A short time later, wearing a pink Hello Kitty T-shirt and black leggings, she left to go to another friend's home, according to a family spokeswoman.

Police said Monday the girl's clothing helped them identify the body.