receta boricua

Monday, May 6, 2019

9:02 PM

I am sand and salt

I am cracked and crumbled seashells

Memories broken by wind and water

Dust that trickles from fingers

Stuck under toe nails

Crunching between crooked teeth long after the day is dark

I am distilled

From spirits

Ancestors stained golden brown by setting suns

Whose bodies fertilized the ground

For men who never stopped to listen

When they said Bienvenidos

Which means Welcome

Handshakes turning babies into slaves

For men who sold ideas and collected futures

I am

Parts cobbled together

Hips made from hillsides

Skin made of palm trees

Blood and bone like rum and coconut

Wandering barefoot

To feel myself

Cracked and crumbled

Where water ends

And I begin