canโt 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 Iโve been waiting for the next guy to appear as some kind of hero, as some kind of reward for all of my effort Iโve put into myself and the life Iโve 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, heโll 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 sheโs too tired to function when sheโs exhausted by all of it
clavos sobre el ataรบd del futuro que querรญa ni un prรญncipe azul ni una casita propia y bonita en vez mirรณ fijamente al caรฑรณn de la pobreza tratando de buscar algo brillo de lo que alguna fui entre mis mucho sueรฑos olvidados
any idea or notion of romance is lost to me Iโve tried every which way to make myself appetizing edible for men to take interest in me, love me but the story always turns sour and Iโm tired of rejection followed by bouts of tears and insanity this spring I will not spend my energy trying to manifest another fool Iโll get obsessed about or get caught up in my head and daydreams this spring Iโm going to concentrate only on my potential thatโs yet to bloom Focus of the world of creativity that resides within waiting to get out
nail on the coffin on the future I wanted no prince charming no house with the white picket fence instead I stare down at the barrel of poverty trying to find a glimmer of who I used to be among my many forgotten dreams
last time I had my last first kiss it was wasted on a middle age scorpio I wore a cute summer dress with red lipstick along with my feminine charm I didnโt have to lay it on thick for him to desire me for him to want to kiss me he wouldโve fuck me I hadnโt been on my period his hands roamed almost every inch of my body as if it belong to him for the 5 minutes we made out while I dissociated and pretended I was somewhere else I was numb and devoid of feeling anything Am I even a person? He said things about how I was so hot and sexy and how sad it was that couldnโt screw me And I laughed flirtatiously following the script Iโve had since I could remember and I felt no desire or any pleasure if anything I was repulsed by him, by myself hating how even at 40, I was still pulling the same bullshit since I was 16 making myself an object of desire for me to play with and then something snapped in me that day a couple of hours after that date I sent him a snap along with all the other 7 dudes I was entertaining and keeping as options the same message, โIโm sorry, Iโm not in a place to date or even to have men as friends, I wish you the bestโ it was hard as I had always been addicted to menโs attention and validation but something told me it was time to switch the narrative even though I knew it would be lonely
Happy World Poetry day! Lately, I’ve been reflecting a lot about how my relationship with poetry has changed the past few years. I’ve always said poetry-reading and writing it has been a type of therapy for me. And while, this is still true, this relationship has evolved in me finding community with other poets online and in real life. I’m actually really lucky that I’m able to call a few of them my friends. This community has also helped me become a better poet in many ways. With all that being said, I wanted to share a few poems I’ve written about this community and how it’s impacted me.
tonight
we gather here tonight to share the most vulnerable parts of ourselves through poems written on a whim, in cars, inspired by dreams and tragedies and everything in between some of it will be meaningful some of it will be nonsense most of the time, it will be someone trying to make sense of the world with a few phrases and sentences clumsily strung together and calling it poetry
1/2/24
me at the open mic in May
finding community in athens
when I finally took myself seriously as a poet and writer, I was 40 before that I thought I was some cute and crazy girl who used poetry and stories to express on paper whatever she couldnโt burden loved ones with but now at 40, between the july heat and mental health diagnosis I had a nervous breakdown and I used my creativity to get through it so I started blogging and used my poetry as content I had no idea anyone would like it, resonate with it and subscribe to it and after a year, I went back to open mic and keep going and bared my most vulnerable and intimate thoughts this lead to me finding community with the local poets of Athens and itโs what I had always wanted but was always too scared, too insecure to seek out and also too busy with everything else in my life but one day I got tired and finally embraced the fire of my creativity and decided to share the artist in me with the world once I did that, I created a community and eventually found a community of writers and poets who accept me, encourage me, and inspire me
2/20/24
me at the open mic in September
safe harbor
I landed in my safe harbor after I almost drowned and Iโm greeted by strangers who welcome me with open arms they donโt turn away or tell me Iโm too much when I tell them my lore of trauma through poetry they applaud me, they accept me, they encourage me theyโre the sanctuary Iโve been searching for since I can remember these strangers who call themselves poets have now become my chosen family
I hate it when I catch myself being unintentionally sweet It makes me feel vulnerable and weak Itโs almost as if my armor of empowered Queen is breaking and I canโt allow that to happen Iโve come too far in my heroineโs journey to allow romantic daydreams to disrupt it And Iโm tempted to erase his messages And block him Itโs not his fault or mine Itโs 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 didnโt see until it unraveled me Until it was too late and I didnโt 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
era tiempo de convertimos en extraรฑos y esta vez para siempre No habรญa mรกs vueltas que dar o mas capรญtulos de nuestra historia que escribir Aceptar que ya nunca mรกs seremos fue el favor mรกs grande que nos hicimos Ojala que esta vez seamos extraรฑos para siempre porque siendo algo mรกs siempre nos causa un daรฑo y conflicto interno Ojala que esta vez seamos como el fin del cuento que mi papรก me contaba cuando era niรฑa, โColorin colorado nuestro cuento se ha acabadoโ
asustada y desesperada, me ato a ti aprendรญ de niรฑa que la soledad era una maldiciรณn y quรฉ quedarse sola es la peor cosa que le puede pasar a una mujer
being with you was a form of self harm it was another symptom of my mental illness It was me living with my unhealed alcoholic daddy issues it was the worst version of me trying to find some kind of semblance of love to fill the void with whatever, even if that love looked toxic, brought out the worst in me, berated and assaulted me still stupidly I went back to you and accepted you in my life over and over again even with delusional daydreams in the back of my mind that if I kept you in my life long enough eventually youโd change and one day weโd get it right but all you ever did was disappoint me over and over again but this last undoing of us is the one and good riddance for that because at 43, iโm too fucking old to waste my time on fuck bois who canโt show an ounce of respect and dignity