Palabras exactas & Curso de lenguas
Quien quiera atisbar el infinito /
que intente aprender alguna lengua.
Category: Poetry
Bloody Half-Birth & An Afternoon Reparenting On An Empty Playground
This freedom used to elude me, /
but now, a smile untangles /
Here’s to La Familia, Fuego Dancers, & Hacia la Luz
Here’s to the Chicanos /
The Mexicanos /
Our Indigenous ancestors /
Yá hmi ma ‘yu̲*
At times, only sometimes /
in the brightness of the moon /
the eyes of the leaves /
signal the course of things /
Elegía por mi español & Rasquache, Defined & Declared
Rasquachismo is us, and we are rasquachismo. /
I speak in tongues & on girlhood
I speak in tongues– /
words of both Spanish /
and English chime /
and dance in resistance /
and spite. /
Assuming a forest won’t stay the same
[…] a mess, /
you wake up elevated in a cloud of grief, birdsong /
is floating through an open window like a promise. /
A Place Without Wind
Yet the well dried up and the birds fled. /
So the people bowed before the king and asked for guidance. /
Sacrificio & When We Speak
When we speak our languages, we claim our culture; we claim what’s ours, and like our ancestors, when we speak, there’s power.
