this was the image that inspired me to write this poem
I saw a cross written in the sky and I wondered, βIs that you God? Is that your sign that I shouldnβt lose faith or hope and I need to keep going,to keep living? Is that you God ? Telling me everything will be fine and one day peace will be mine
I divorce myself from drama I marry the calm I divorce myself from lies I marry the truth I divorce myself from faking it I marry being authentic I divorce myself from self hatred I marry self love
Faith found me one day and told me to keep going when I didnβt want to Faith made me believe in GOD when I wanted to fall into the abyss of depression Faith held me as I cried endless tears of my about my latest life’s catastrophe Faith loved me when I couldnβt love myself Faith brought me people who believed in me When I couldnβt believe in myself Faith decided to one day bring itβs accomplice HOPE
my first lesson in forgetting spanish came at age 6, that first week in first grade at holy spirit when Spanish came out of my mouth and sister Loretto screamed at tme and threatened me with the ruler I donβt remember what she said bu t I was deeply impacted learned to be good, to be obedient was to forget who I was and quickly I made my brain believe English was better, English was the language for survival in my adopted homeland and like a sponge, I absorbed it I didnβt lose heart when I was placed in the lowest reading group, didnβt cry when I mispronounced a word, and my classmates laugh I just kept on going understood that my parents sacrifice in coming here needed to be worth it there was so much pressure on my shoulders to succeed at age 6 instead of playing make believe and getting lost in disney fantasies my priority was to learn English and become my parents american dream
the sexual tension between me and ghosting everyone is insane
we lie to ourselves continuously about our needs to save face, to avoid conquering our fears to not feel insecure weβll tell ourselves we are better off alone and independent when in reality as humans we are meant to be social we are meant to share ourselves with others but itβs cooler to say, βIβm good with my solitude, Iβm my own best friendβ because deep down inside we donβt want to get hurt again
subtitles jump from my phone screen violently one of the few films from 1950βs mexico that address domestic violence one of the few films to portray the man as the crazy one but instead of him going to prison for his many crimes against his wife he ends up locked up in a monastery
one day in bed and my son acts like its the end of the world demands I get up and act like an adult like the mother heβs used to seeing but in defiance, I stay in bed reading poetry and allow the muse to come and allow me to pour out of me and land on paper for once I wonβt allow the patriarchy define how I should act, who I should be for once I allow the poet me to be my first priority
feet washed and kissed in front of others everyone calls her blessed and lucky no one knows about the scars she hides beneath her lilac modest dress no one believes her if she told them what a monster he was behind closed doors
weβre in our saorsa era, redemptive and honest a complete 180 turn to who we were before a story I like so much better than our last one always said I was a much better friend and girlfriend
in total darkness I fell for a while for a year I didnβt listen to music For a year I donβt remember being a mom and while I still function and went to work Several years later I realize how I had forgotten all about the darkness I had fallen in a while ago my mind blocked it in an attempt to move on in an attempt to heal
kept the dead rose petals along with your note as long as I could it was the first time a man had acknowledged me worthy enough of a rose and at 16, that was everything
flickering ashes, among them, the brideβs dress dreams of a family dreams of a white picket fence all went up in smoke jilted and pregnant bride cries on the floor, waiting for the sentencing from her parents now that her lover jilted her and couldnβt make an honest woman out of her
Feeling hopeless in a cesspool of a world That will never accept you -for your skin color -for your accent -for your nationality -for your religion or lack of one -for your independent thought Anything that doesnβt fit the image of white and Christian is blasphemous To be an βotherβ is to carry the weight of racism, discrimination, xenophobia All the phobias on your already burdened shoulders So they try to kill us with actual guns Or metaphorical ones of insults,rejections or looks of disgust.
this is a dangerous road Iβm traveling on smiling at your messages Creating a playlist inspired by you romanticizing every interaction we have liking every single one of your posts Wondering if youβre safe enough To get to know you beyond the walls of this simple friendship
me manifesting that one day I’ll be holding a book with my stories
middle age me is not seeking revenge on all who caused me trauma Iβm simply trying to make sense of the fuckery that happened to me Iβm simply trying to address the unhealed trauma that still lies within me and haunts me in my dreams Iβm trying to process and understand that I never deserved any of it Iβm trying to get rid of that shame and guilt Iβve carried from it and while sometimes that looks vindictive Iβm sorry but the only way to my journey in healing work is through uninhibited storytelling