A very special labor, the January-February issue. I hope you enjoy stories of identity and struggle:
Scales
Better watch people
from afar, like big cities.
Admire their beauty
from a distance and avoid
touching their fences.
On Saturn I'd be
five kilos less and that's what
matters more in this
floating universe where not
a thing weighs more than I.
Family Gatherings
All children wanted to be men
and no one cared to pick
homegrown rosemary and dill
for the women in the kitchen.
The boys came in pairs to steal
little cheese pies, then went on
with their precious outdoor life
of playing football and riding bikes.
The girls feared nothing more
than becoming their mothers
with lives spent over lemons
and eggs in hot fish soups.
We didn’t know then that kitchens
held so many secrets, far more
steaming than backyard politics.
Women have been always winning.
Breathe
The crashing density the stuffy thoughts
Of asthmatic lungs gulping
The fake air with greed
Everyone is trying
To grasp what they can
An old woman's out of luck
Girlish games
Tired pigtails unwashed
Nicotine and coffee but
Without infatuation
The earth is flat just
Give me oxygen
I'll Play it Cool
Every time
you want to hurt me
you twist your tongue
to warm it up
before it hits me
with whip-like speed.
I was never fast
with words and now
your gun of a finger
is pointing at me.
I will remain silent.
You cannot win.
The Duck Painting
It’s hard to tell if it is monochrome
or just faded into a pale delft blue
and why it's hanging in the living room
in this furnished simulation of some
home. I’ll change it – a lasting addition
in the long list of intentions. I start
counting the ducks but get distracted
by the frame. Gold and metallic and
more eighties than my mother. She
had one that looked the same. So,
there’s a faint reminder of who I am.
You find strange ways to connect
when life is condensed to a trolley bag.
[You will learn more about the Poetry Issues project here.]
