I wrote this poem in May of 2024.

I gave birth to the sun on the sunniest of June days
and almost 13 years later
heβs becoming the moon
I wrote this poem in May of 2024.

there are days I donβt feel strong enough to be their mom
maybe itβs insecurity that weighs heavily on me
after every fight, after every conflict
it was easier when they were small
and I was their favorite person
the one they ran to the moment I opened the door
nowadays I work much and they have their own interests
to have much to do with me
nowadays they bring up grievances of everything
Iβve done and am doing wrong
is this karma for being a bad daughter to my mom
is this karma for being selfish and self absorbed
for a few years of their lives
Who knows-
maybe itβs not about being strong, being right,
or being respected
maybe itβs about them knowing they are loved
I wrote this poem in May of 2024.

miss the days when I was your favorite person, when you greeted me with excitement
when we played candyland for your hours
Nowadays. Iβm lucky to get a βhiβ from you, nowadays, I hear more from you
through cashapp than IRL
nowadays when I ask you about your day, you murmur a one word response
and overnight you went from my sweet cherub to a tall and lanky stranger
I donβt recognize and while I still hear you play with your legos
I know those days are coming to an end soon
While growing up is inevitable to the passage of time
itβs still heartbreaking and painful
because youβre the last one of my trinity
making the transition from boy to man
I wrote this poem in May of 2023.

Itβs fading fast, the time where you willingly spend time with me
Soon youβll prefer your friends to me
Soon youβll lock yourself in your room and only come out for food
Your voice is changing and youβre already taller than me
and your hormones makes you all kinds of angry
and me and everyone in the house are in denial
that youβre growing up
because youβve been the baby for so long
our little rainbow who lights up our family
and itβs hard for us to accept our baby is blossoming
into a young man
and every day my heart hurts more thinking
how fast itβs all going, and how soon Iβll be forgotten
slowly fading into your background
I wrote this poem in May of 2025.

ego finally captured, Iβm calm and humbled
the spiral of paranoia is gone
no one hates me, no oneβs out to get me
it was a false narrative I created in moments
of madness
it was fake news as I let my emotions
get the better of me and control me
Iβve gained clarity again
I wrote this poem in May of 2025.

I punish the men in my life with silence
I learned it from my mom
sheβd last days without saying a word to my dad
after a fight
always waited until he broke down and apologized
she always needed to win
and while Iβm not as brutal as her
I need to protect myself when a man makes me feel
like Iβm not good enough, like Iβm a monster
so I walk away calm and give a silence so deafening
theyβre ask a million questions why
theyβll search answers in between the lines
of the posts I write
and if theyβre smart enough and get the hint,
theyβll stay away from me
I wrote this poem in May of 2022.

My son is blossoming and becoming the man
I always knew he could be
Heβs ambitious, heβs kind,heβs a hard worker
Heβs a motherβs dream come true
And while at times he may still stumble and occasionally
Heβs inherited strength and resilience from me
It keeps him from giving up
It keeps him moving towards a life full of success and happiness
I wrote this poem in May of 2016.

I didnβt think this day would come so soon
I wasnβt prepared for the emotions I would feel
βdoomed to be another βstatisticβ βwhen I had you at 17
they said
And when at 4, when the diagnosis of autism came
βGood luck to him to becoming a productive member of society
they sai
βNo way, will you succeed ,brown autistic boy,
son of a teenage momβ
they said
Yet here you are –
proving THEM wrong
Here is where you belong
not yet graduated from high school
but starting your first college classes
Tonight
Here is where you belong
despite the obstacles,the haters, society
trying to diminish your light for being different
here is where you belong
-on the start of a journey to success
and here I am beaming with pride
And love for you, my beautiful brown boy
defying odds and statistics,
and everyone who ever stood in your way.
as you write your own David and Goliath story
I wrote this poem in April of 2025.

the nuns and mami started into obedience and I reverted into a world of silence
And everyone praised mami about what a good little girl I was
and no one thought much about this
until my parents demanded answers for the rebellious streak in my teens
couldnβt understand the numerous absences, the subpar performance in school,
why I sulked in my bedroom for hours on ended, the disrespect from my mouth
as I stood up for myself, they wondered where their sweet and quiet princess went
all the while they should have looked back 6 or 7 years ago
when they indoctrinated me to hold it all in or else they wouldnβt love me
should have known one day Iβd rebel and explode as I was finding my spirit,
my voice once again after it had been buried under layers of good behavior
I wrote this in March of 2022.

When I was little, I was often lost in daydreams
about America
It was beautiful and blue
I pictured a celestial and warm ocean
where the waves tenderly touch my toes
I was taught it was a better existence than
the one we were living in
but no one told me that dreams sometimes
donβt come true
and the reality of America was filled with a hardness
that even 35 years later Iβm still processing
indentured servitude, exploitation, depression,
addiction,racism, mental illness were just a few side effects
of going for the American dream
I wrote this poem in January of 2020.

Sheβs an American
Iβm an immigrant
She loves Trump
Iβm a borderline socialist
She believes in money and brand names
I believe in love and poetry
Born from the same womb
But living in different worlds
Sheβs upper middle class
Iβm working class
Sheβs latina when it suits her
Iβm latina every single day
Sheβs the definition of assimilation
I get called out by HR for being too Peruvian
Sheβs the American Dream
And Iβm the immigrant
I wrote this poem in January of 2025.

el tio Julio always spoke English to us, the kids
didnβt matter who we were with or where we were
I think he was an advocate of assimilation at an early age
I think he wanted all of us to have a fighting chance
in our adopted homeland
perhaps this was an act of kindness on his part
he knew that in order to survive in the USA
we had to leave behind the part that made us seen as a foreigner
and become as American as possible