BOTANICA

7.25.20
Ferns and aspens
you weren’t ever lost
you mistook shedding
for molting
distracted from the alive that communes in your chest cavity

dirt tan sweetened sunbeams
steep em in rain – call it coffee
sign mental postcards and courier them on memory lane
that same birdsong all mushrooms play for sugar

HYDRA

6.25.20
look, im not proud of where i came from
please judge me on who i am now

let’s put the bullshit away for a second here and get absolutely real.

the wrong person held my hand
through an abortion
that wasn’t my choice, by the way.
i still hate her for that.

too graphic for you? try living it

what you don’t realize
is that being witness to desire is privilege
you are by no means entitled to my affections

from abortion clinics and Stockholm syndromes
i’ve worked fucking hard to get here
i will not sacrifice and ounce of dignity
to appease you
or anyone else – i don’t owe you shit

madam,
maybe my rage is too strong
too pungent – maybe we know we are candle and firework
keeping a distance to not burn to quick to soon.
keep singing to me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlJBDeI3fjc

DOCTOR

1.23.20
i wonder what it feels like
to lose a limb

SUGARDADDY

1.14.20
i see the Slytherin boy now
the one with multiple skins
even when theyre guaranteed a wardrobe

there’s something in you that omits
only bringing to light your triumphs
claiming work as your own

the subtleties of bringing others down
to build you up
are not lost on me
letting your ambition guide you

that’s the difference between you and i
brave enough to build you up to your potential
while you flaunt sequin that’s not your own

its in the simple things
the small actions
in the face of determination when you shine
your most sly underhand

BIRD

1.8.20
picnic melodies and tinker bell laughs
youre right in so many things
wait five minutes for the next urge
using your legs to make your heartbeat fly
look at you
delivering promises of inspiration
friendships change
and im so lucky
to have struck gold at then end of your rainbow

BIRD
12.4.19
there is magic in you
some type of universe making
lists between yawns
to live in dreams and waking life

DANCER

12.3.19
using love like a trump card
remember
nobody likes that guy.

SNAKE.S.KIN

10.26.27
never complain you haven’t been given things to say –
the world will destroy itself and you will drown in the words you didn’t think you had.

he’s too loud
too abrasive too imposing
lower your voice please

she s too selfish
too self centered
too greedy
i cant forgive that

some fire in my belly drawing rage circles in my iris
i cant possibly hate everyone
i havent even met most of them yet

HISTORY
8.9.19

imagine
propelling halfway across the earth
away from friends, family, language, culture
in pursuit of the unknown

thrilling?
you have a thousand pre-defined impressions based on your fishbowl
yes im sure economy coach – backpacking across Europe’s beer sipping cobble stone archways are more than welcoming to a foreigner who looks just like you, green eyes looking at green eyes, pale sheen of the all too perfect jawlines dimply smiling at their roundtrip ticket comfort.

and you call this culture

news flash honey – your international adventure is no different than a Sedona Jeep tour top down, shaded by sun hats, swimming in the holy vortex waters stained with sunblock and mosquito repellent, you disgust me.

“you don’t look hipsanic”
sweetheart – the line you’ve drawn to define your perception of race
is the narrow minded privilege in which you shelter yourself – daily
im as much hispanic as you are European
Yo Soy Latina
Caribe, Bogota, Cundinamarca
do you not know how insulting that is?
you are the reason grandparents buried their children s accents
burning one language without fully speaking another
imagine the fear of being judged
being greater than the fear of not having a tongue
Spanish was given to our people at the end of a hispanic sword
each rolled R is a red wet finger pointing me back to this
Spanish, is not my native language
english, is not my native language
the languages i speak are bursting with blood, but they are all i have
i own only my hot mouths pending against an assimilation clock
and colonial legacy
and what is “hispanic” to you, anyway?
i could guess what you mean
and assume that it’s the low priced gardening tool like the one buried in the shed behind your Victorian summer home
or that invisible harvesting instrument that picks all of your grapes for you
and has to survive on slave wage plantations without unions or bathroom breaks
or maybe when you say “hispanic” you mean your standing parent
that person who raises your kids for you when you’re tired of being a mom
that mouthless set of hands and knees that scrubs the crap from your toilets
or maybe i haven’t had the need yet
but i haven’t come across a hispanic

I have met Latinos and Latinas
proud of the vibrant quilt we weave across the endless cemetery that cradles our past
a swollen dust underneath our souls
wherever we stand that we nickname “home” twisting roots at war looking for nothing else but to be held
you know, like a family grasping onto each other
because they left behind everything
and only have their memories and each other left
arriving on mars without a guide book or a map

i guess this is what you’re scared off
The fear that you will one day wake up and no longer recognize the great big isles you so proudly call home
before borders were nailed onto the hands and feet of earth my Agua de Panela and your British Tea may have shared a cup of Ethiopian Coffee

its just the immigrant you fear
coming from over there to over here
you’re more cautious chewing when the flavor is new
remember, immigrants don’t have space for caution

imagine no room for caution