thereβs a song I listen to when I know Iβm truly fucked when I know I have feelings for someone when I get that sinking wave of romance in my gut that makes me want to vomit and swim in an ocean of anxiety and like the sentimental poet that I am I wonβt tell you what that song is but Iβll give you a hint itβs the cover of a 70βs love song by Will to the Power
always second choice, a lifetime full of heather moments the universe makes a mockery out of me putting me in contests I never win never being smart enough, pretty enough, American enough will I ever be chosen?
ancestor, ancestor- which alcohol goes best with making shitty life decisions ancestors says, not the PBR, not the michelob ultra light, itβs too basic of an energy for the kind of epic shitty life decisions you tend to make donβt reach for the margarita wine either, too obvious, too much of a cliche and you already have plenty of them in your poetry Go for the Guiness six pack make your shitty life decisions with some English class since most of your terrible decisions tend to include some asshole whose ancestors are colonizer Englishmen
sultry July night at a pirate party fiery red Dionysian hair, body made by Gods caught his eye from a distance he wanted her, he craved her, he wanted to fuck her he approached her right away she saw through his toxic fuck boi vibe Said βno thanksβ and introduced him to me I was already 3 drinks in, mesmerized by his body Covered in tattoos from head to toe, his boyish smile felt an electric energy between us (or maybe that was the buzz from my third margarita) heβs the sexiest man Iβve ever seen, I WANT THIS BAD BOY! within a few minutes, we assessed each other and flirted he asked me for my phone number, giddy, I gave it to him and that was the beginning of the end of me and almost 6 years later, my friend still says, βSorry, I introduced you to himβ
mami dressed me up in ruffles and pastels whenever she could Iβd swirled and twirled in my dress until I got dizzy loved when everyone told me, βay que bonita te mirasβ and I awkwardly bowed, smiled, and hid sashayed to every single one of my relatives and did the same thing itβs one of the few times I remembered being vain as a child one of the few times I didnβt feel weird and like an outcast external validation learned at the tender age of 8
la ira y furia de mis antepasados femeninas viven en mi ellas me visitan en sueΓ±os y me mandan mensajes que cuentan sus historias, sus verdades aunque duelan, aunque algunas me llamaran sΓ‘dica y dramΓ‘tica ellas me inquietan y me dicen es tiempo de gritar todas las injusticias y trastornos vividow que nuestras muertes no han sido en vano y aunque lloro y trato de ignorar la llamada de la sangre es inevitable-fui escogida- para sus venganzas, para sus historias de redenciΓ³n
canβt blend in with this privileged world wrong age, wrong last name, wrong ethnicity I stand destined for failure on this institutions steps as the pressure to succeeds hang around me like a noose around my neck and yet I still keep going and show up every day if only to teach my kids a lesson in how to keep going when you want to quit
for almost three years Iβve been waiting for the next guy to appear as some kind of hero, as some kind of reward for all of my effort Iβve put into myself and the life Iβve built Subconsciously I did this Even as I publicly roared about being empowered on my own I still wanted someone to be my sanctuary to lay my love in And I wrote, manifested, schemed, flirted got obsessed with men were just meant to be friends Thinking, gosh, if I hang on long enough, heβll come around this might work out but today I discovered the only hero for me is the woman in the mirror who still manages to get out of bed even on the bad days when sheβs too tired to function when sheβs exhausted by all of it
I hate it when I catch myself being unintentionally sweet It makes me feel vulnerable and weak Itβs almost as if my armor of empowered Queen is breaking and I canβt allow that to happen Iβve come too far in my heroineβs journey to allow romantic daydreams to disrupt it And Iβm tempted to erase his messages And block him Itβs not his fault or mine Itβs the faulty wiring in my brain it causes the logic in me to short circuit every time I talk to him
you were a dead end street that I didnβt see until it unraveled me Until it was too late and I didnβt want to turn around and kept going and eventually I crashed in the most magnificent and catastrophic of ways and I burned and burned until I was ashes and rose up in the most spectacular rebirth anyone had witnessed since Jesus