There is time enough in the day
to be perfectly still:
inhale carcinogens
exhale exuberance.

Reason floods in with dawn light,
tips into the place I deserted
only hours before,
and overturns the breakfast table
I shared with a famous actress
as well as the many treasure chests
I had ducked in and out of brambles to secure,
but they did not spill their glittering contents on the cobblestones
but rather gave way to birdsong.

We were taught to extol
the sparkling bridge

and how the pilgrims crossed
the sea and saw the sparkles
in the snow.

And now I remember how unfair
it seemed, Theseus abandoning Ariadne
on Naxos, simply because she was no longer
useful to him—

Life being so long
and all those relatives on the verge of death,
I did not notice I had counted on you
to continue your misery with me.

I was thirteen when I got diagnosed.
My thighs stuck to a cold plastic chair,
I snapped a rubber band against my wrist,
The walls of the office were bare,

It’s my first time in a large museum.
I don’t know what to expect.

I find myself in gallery after gallery
of the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus.

It makes me think of my mother,
her devotion to the two

I wrote all my pain,
hid it in pretty writing,
hoping that dread dressed well,
Would hide the fears I’m fighting.

The light grows dim on memory lane.
Spiders rule the attic.

It’s time to let the fog roll in;
to set aside perspective

The feeling of being stuck on Earth comes
when I see a shooting star and you don’t.

Somewhere in the Atlantic, those stars
watch ashes float inside a wine bottle,
deliver themselves to a fisherman,
or a young girl thinking how
a single pine cone can kill you,
simply by falling from the sky

The twilight leaned upon the hill,
And all the woods grew hushed and still.
The dusk unrolled its ashen floor,
When fate knocked faintly at my door.

I. el abuelo
there is no time to fetch the midwife.
the townsfolk stand by and witness
a baby boy, born beside the river
he will someday cross.
there will be work on the other side,
a life to build and a language to learn
on the rails dancing between two lands.
after years of steam and sweat,
he is the last one to survive,
the last son living.

Apparently, only 2% of the population has green eyes.
Apparently, only 10-12% of the population is left-handed.
Apparently, only 10.6% of the population has premature grey hair.

I want to go back.
To rain drops on car windows,
And long drives to nowhere.
Red lights and doodles on fogged windows.

‘Her love caused her fall’
She smiled down upon me
From her lofty branch
Tears rolled down her cheeks like diamonds
When she saw I had a ring

On the manual typewriter
in my father’s old workroom,
I tried to learn to type.

The only stars under a city sky are the ones we paint onto the ceiling.
The only horison you can find is the one displayed on a compass.
The only lights to guide the way are the ones on the front of a car.
The only life left to live is the one we find along the way.
My heart pounds in my chest like a bass drum.
I can feel everything coming to me like a freight train.

i went to the tiger exhibit at the zoo today
he was white
a strange color for a tiger to be

Memories made in play,
players set upon the board.
A move, a kick, a dodge, a tag.
We children live for the game,
and the game lives in us,
light in our smiles, lift in our hearts.

in the morning light
your little pink shoes
wait by the door
declaring
they are needed