what if the colonizer in me took over and I declared manifest destiny on every man I fancied, even if he was taken what if I didnβt care about the other woman and was a completely selfish bitch and become an expert homewrecker
Check your privilege at the door every single white person who comes asking for my opinion I canβt be your agreeable POC anymore
Check your privilege at the door Iβm not the voice for my community with you, certain topics I canβt explore donβt use me as another learning opportunity
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
I shouldnβt wish death upon anyone but I wish death upon you the minute your child posted about your open heart surgery and immediately , it makes sense, a man with a weak mind has an even weaker heart I shouldnβt wish death upon anyone but I wish death upon you couldnβt you die on the operating table? you never deserved your life with your beautiful children you-who made me carry the burden of shame and guilt for years and years I shouldnβt wish death upon anyone but I wish death upon you you-who desecrated my morality and ethics through your domestic authority I shouldnβt wish death upon anyone but I wish death upon you because someone like doesnβt deserve to breathe the same breath of real human beings
I should go back to where I come from and where is that exactly here -is the only real home I’ve ever known here – is where all of my babies were born here- is where I’ve loved and I’ve mourned so where is my place because anywhere else feels like a home unknown
hot summer nights on your porch meant the world to me and inspired an unusual amount of poems Iβm starting to think that writing poems is how I hold onto the magic of our memories
longing to escape responsibility of my suburban life I became 21 again and did drugs and fucked stranger men I never meant any harm, I just wanted to know what it was like to not be looked at as someoneβs mother, someoneβs wife
Sept of 1986-me blowing out a candle right before me and my family started our immigration journey-my aunt had a goodbye party for us
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
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
I donβt want to but have to be the boss the boss of my family the boss in my relationships the boss of my life it sucks to take charge and dominate all of the spaces it sucks to have so many responsibilities thrust upon me it sucks to always have to shrink myself for egos it sucks to never be in a space where for once I can be soft
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.
Iβm soldier of love too lost battles for me to count and recount how many times Iβve had to stitch my heart over and over again from the many knives past lovers have stabbed me with with the last one, I almost lost all hope for love It made me lose my sanity and almost gave me PTSD Still the romantic in me refused to die and resurfaced this year Told me, βthis time it will be different, this time you have self respect and youβll be choosy over whoβs worthy of your love energyβ