I was on a bus on my way to a new school, a high school on the south side of Chicago. I transferred to that school because I had moved into the area. The bus went south over a dark brick road bridge--it was dark because it was a gloomy day out--like the sky was heavy with rain. This new school was completely new--metal framework with floor-to-ceiling windows, open floors. The class body was mixed, with a majority being black and white students. I went to the second floor to wait in line at a check-in window. A very chatty boy behind me bumped into me and as I turned to look at him, we both felt an immediate attraction--we are both brown, we are both alternative. I'm reminded of my husband, I remembered I have a husband--maybe in that life or another--so I keep the boy in mind to feel less alone but ignore him as I wait in line. I'm outside in the vast woods that is the campus of the high school. There is a pond and there are green rolling hills of different sizes, all moving l...
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(inspired by Joe Brainard's I Remember// https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/joe-brainard-i-remember) I remember the first time I learned the hand signal for ‘head’. I was wearing my ‘I heart NY’ shirt, sitting across from a boy who just flunked sixth grade. I remember the first time I saw a home with two wives. We (the kids) ate pizza and talked about Star Fox. The adults all had tortillas in their hands while watching Congo. I remember the roads we took while driving in (or out) of Mexico. I remember Spanish rock ballades about flying love and who to call ‘daddy’. I remember one long night in a van when my aunt banged her fist against the drivers head rest yelling for him to stop the car. She had to puke. I remember feeling like the van, so heavy with passengers, could easily fall into the abyss because it was pitch black outside. The only light came from the radio and the van headlights. I remember shopping for Christmas clothes with my dad...
words are breadcrumbs to a life and mind i try to comprehend, moments that i can't quite understand, the insides i try to translate. These are my rough drafts.
Treating me like a princess- I've never been treated like that before. I don't know what a princess would demand Does she have any demands at all? I ask for you to do things and you get them done but today was very different, you have had enough. why of all the days did i decide to ask you to do this to make you believe it had to be done. when it came to the close, X was pressed twice, the screen blanked out then you started to explode all i hear you repeat is 'quiet' 'be quiet' 'just shut up' lucky am i for not being another person for this is truly not an explosion, i am told lucky am i for having your love or i'd have been thrown to the curb Nothing seemed different from other past requests I was confused, dumbfounded, unsure of myself why of all the days did you pick today why could you not tell me this those times that I asked your only demand is for my silence- well deserved you lived in silence, you breathed in silen...
fast pitter-patter of children's feet running across the room. the shuffling under a tight, metal, bed mattress that did second duty as a couch. "are you in?", asked a girl with long straight hair, with eyes that have seen too much for her age. "i'm in", said a boy with ashy brown hair, eyes as green as the sea. "now, teach me how to whistle and i'll teach you how to pop your gum." ok. a creak across the floor, someone else has now entered the home. the footsteps were heard in the kitchen, an extension of the living room. the steps were coming closer. "sshh", said the sister. the brother nodded his head and kept as quiet as possible. but they both couldn't help but scream when the owner of the steps now had his hands wrapped around their ankles and yanked them out from under the bed. "I hope you were cleaning under the bed", said the man with golden skin, eyes as dark as his voice. he let go of their ankles...