My Neighbors
Upstairs are nocturnal beings. They are playing
Musical chairs right now and yesterday
Shuffleboard with their furniture. Praying
Hasn’t helped, knee-less hymns without leeway—
Like my mother I only pray at night
Unlike my mother, I pray to be heard
Knowing no one listens. It’s a human right
To be heard, but if I scream, it’s absurd?
I scream for those without voices, choices,
And those without chance. My neighbor’s upstairs
Have never had to listen to voices
Below.
Knock knock— We have brought our own chairs.
I open both my windows before bed
and listen to the screams my neighbors dread.
Through the Wall
Now that freedom has entered,
I can feed you the sweetest lies
pulling them from their vines.
How juicy and cold it must feel
to believe there’s a home en el otro lado—
Attention ruffles the palate
In ways sustenance cannot.
Attention suffocates tongues.
Attention fills mouths con mentiras
Attention is what you craved.
This country of my body is broken
into provinces, Walled off like my people
waiting for change. Surviving on change.
Written across their foreheads: We are hungry.
Igual, hermosas
Quarantimes
I’ve always enjoyed the bitter side.
I chew my pills with or without regretful gums,
Drinks always bite before I do.
I find relief refusing suffering.
Funerals over house parties.
Rejection over praise,
Over and over and over and over
Into the deep end. I can swim but I won’t.
I stepped outside today (the fescue
Slithered under my feet, it took ten seconds,
Nine cats drove by, eight dogs walked themselves,
Heaven felt seven feet away, six-gun shots,
Five bikes in the neighbor’s yard, four broken
Flowerpots on my stoop, three versions of myself,
Two bare hands, and one door)
To breath a broken world.