
Poem of the Day: Staircase


EscribΓ este poema en 2004 cuando estaba embarazada con mi segundo hijo y enfadada con mi novio porque Γ©l no me daba un lugar en su vida.

Ya me canse de esperar
Que me des un sitio en tu vida
Ya me canse de esperar
Con tanta ansiedad
De tus ganas de actuar
Ya me canse de esperar
Que vengas a llevarme
Para empezar una vida juntos
Con mucho amor
Ya me canse de esperar
Que actΓΊes con verdad
Alguna vez




I wrote this in 2004 about my husband who I thought was being distant at the time. As you can guess, I don’t deal with rejection well at all and this is one example of many of how my mind deals with it.

Your frigid ways turn me into nothing
I donβt ask for much
but to you I ask for the world
I try so hard to make something
Out of the nothing
That has become usβ¦
But all of it is meaningless to you
From the ages of 18 to 23, I worked for a government agency as an interpreter. I was well-liked by many of my coworkers and my first supervisor was appreciative of me. I was very good at my job and even cross-trained in many other areas that didn’t “pertain to my job”. However, at that job, I was also bullied and discriminated against for being Latina. I was also slut-shamed by my second supervisor and coworkers the latter 2 years I was there. I don’t want to say I deserved being slut-shamed but I’ll just say that I trusted the wrong coworkers with my private life and they went on to gossip about me to everyone. It was also a very stressful environment because of the work I did and clients I had to interact with. My depression and anxiety went haywire. In 2003, I decided to enroll in my local community college and major in English. In 2004, I was trying to go to school full time, work full time, and deal with my child’s new autism diagnosis. I was breaking down mentally and something had to give so I quit this job. I was fucking done. And this poem was inspired by that moment. I thought I had processed this trauma until it came back up in therapy in the summer of 2021. I didn’t realize it at the time but I had suffered a deep racial trauma that impacted me and still triggered reactions in me. I was angry. There is actually way more to this story and one day I’ll share it when I’m ready.

This was the hardest thing I did
but it had to be done
I couldnβt stand the gossip
or the two faces of everyone
the way they pretended to be my friend
but the minute I turned my back to them
they talked like I was the biggest wench
so much envy and hate
I HAVE TO ESCAPE
FROM THIS MISERABLE FATE!
so today I resigned
I didnβt tell them why
all I know is that for the first time
in a really long time
I feel something like happy
so long to the only place I have known
for an almost five year term
for once I breathe a sigh of relief
I finally had the courage to leave
so long to the hypocrisy of this place
to let myself stay here for another day
would only be a fucking waste

I wrote this in 2004 inspired by a rough family situation I was going through at the time. I needed to process what was happening in some way because I couldn’t confront the person. And well, I wrote this narrative poem.

Poor and destitute
in front of me she stood
asking for shelter and food
with tears streaming down her cheek
she kept on repeating
βlet me stay with you tonight,
I promise, one day Iβll make things rightβ
I didnβt know what to do
for a while I just stood
trying to decide
if what I was about to do was right
so with pain in my heart
I had to say
βplease go awayβ
she tried to resist
by giving me a guilt trip
and I told her once again
βplease go awayβ
she still wouldnβt listen
and made me listen to her reasons
this time I lost control
and yelled at her to
βPLEASE GO AWAY
IF YOU DONβT WANT ME
TO GO CRAZYβ
this time she listened to me
maybe she does care for me
it hurt to turn her away
but I couldnβt be swayed
to feel sorry for her
and allow her
to ruin my world
so in the end
this was the dreadful when
I would have to decide
between saving her or me



I wrote this in 2003 reflecting on the immigration of me and my family. The first six year we were in the United States was a nightmare. I’m not sure how much I will share of my immigration story because of all the trauma involved.

I was five at the time
when my parents lied
they said it was going to be great
our brand new fate
we were going away
so we could be safe
we werenβt exactly prepared for
the horrors we would endure
the hardships and struggles
the wonder of it all
why did they persuade us
in them we lost our trust
now weβll never again believe
what they want us to see
