Iβm not the one you want or the one youβll ever take home to meet your mama but Iβm the one etched in your mind, the one who appears in your dreams the one you will never forget about and one of your few regrets and you, you were another story among many another obsession of my past I hardly ever think about
I want to hold on to whatβs real and not be stuck in a daydream I want to live in my present And not stuck in my past I want to be over you and not be triggered by the memory of you
it wasnβt until today I realized how ordinary you really were It wasnβt that you were ever that interesting or special It was me with my lovergirl delusional glasses refusing to see past what was in front of me Seeing and getting caught up in fantasies of who you could be when really you were, the most ordinary of men not malicious, not especially intelligent not really helpful just kind of existing without any spark without anything that would make me look twice at you now
Pretty gets me in a man’s door but also makes me feel like a whore I’ve been pretty sexy, pretty nice, pretty sweet I’ve also been pretty crazy, pretty Petty, and pretty mean men love me when I’m pretty and submissive but not when I’m pretty reclusive men want the pretty girl who’s fun but not when I’m a pretty girl who’s a selfish cunt pretty gets me notice but also gets me dismissed
Men love a pretty mess like me especially the nice ones who want to fix me and save me Iβm their pretty princess whoβs so lovely and sweet And for some, my pussy makes them think or say they love me but when I turn from a pretty mess to a crazy and chaotic hurricane they can’t stand to be around me and run away βI never signed up for this, you’re toxicβ and I cry and then laugh at the absurdity you don’t get to choose just to love the fun part of me because that’s not love that’s their primal need and lust for me disguised as loved because real love accepts everything about me
to see my american dream I just need to step into my backyard and look at my holy trinity who call me mom theyβre the ones I try to better myself for theyβre the one who make my immigrant existence worth living for theyβre my american dream wrapped up in burps, dark humor and love
july, july, july itβs the month where I lose my mind the heat gets to me and turns up the BSC in me you wonβt find me sweet and eager to please in July you wonβt find me full of ruffles and flowery phrases in poetry youβll find me being a ball of immigrant rage and fury youβll find me a woman whoβs had enough of the American dream bullshit and ready to roar and scream out everything wrong with this country
denial sits in the pit of my gut but I disguise it with a smile and trips to the zoo act like domestic bliss is heaven when inside Iβm trembling with rage
as long as there is breath left in me I will try try to be a good mom to my kids try to tell my story try to love everyone the best way i can try to find understanding for what happened to me try to find joy in the most ordinary of moments try to dance my way through my most depressive episodes try find my inner peace and calm
hold onto hope, donβt let go one day youβll laugh about this one day youβll be okay hold onto hope, donβt let go Remember all of the times youβve been strong Remember all of the times you put one foot in front of the other hold onto hope, donβt let go your story is still being written youβre still in time to change your narrative
lately I hate everything I have written Sometimes I get the urge to burn Or delete everything but something tells me this is how I know Iβm growing Iβm evolving in my craft
Iβm used to being a doormat always allowing peopleβs energy to pollute my life and take up my time itβs the people pleaser in me who needed to fawn be easy to get along with with,always avoiding conflict, become the person they want me to be, always easy to digest and swallow cutting away pieces of my authenticity- never valuing myself or putting myself first It was learned martyrdom from the women in my family Internalized misogyny sold to me at young age dressed up as selfless acts of love but Iβm done sacrificing myself for others Itβs time to unlearn this toxic way of loving and being I refuse to passed this down to the next generation of woman who come after me Iβm here to take up space, roar like a lioness and passed down a new legacy of self love that took me 41 years to learn
my body feels like a rundown shack that’s crumbling down slowly I canβt get up in the morning without my knee or hip bitching and moaning without me groaning in pain and mumbling to myself βOmg, another stupid dayβ and cursing my genetics that make me watch everything I eat and again I wonder am I paying a karmic debt for my colonizer ancestors