Library Search

5/9/16

7:40pm

procrastinating studying Physics

.

I want the books to be old

And new

I want a range so that I am not gasping for the air

Trapped in between the pages

That don’t see daylight

Because they do not want us to know

Of our power

Of our own gente’s words

So I am eternally searching for Latinx last names

Mostly Latinas

Who understand my brown skin struggles

And still just want to write

About themselves

About beauty

About ugliness

About whatever they want because they will not deny that they are good writers

But being brown penetrates the epidermis of the pages

As we transfer our color into our words

Because we cannot ignore ourselves

The white world ignores us as they find our color distasteful

So we scream

And write in Spanish

English

Spanglish

Translated

Fill our own libraries until the bookshelves are heavy and sag

Like Coatlicue’s breasts

Because she and the bookshelves are ready to feed us knowledge of ourselves

To make sure we are alive with our own fierceness

That we recognize our own blood in the pages

So we can say “ese es mi gente!” with pride

Y nos sentamos at the bookshelf

Our backs bending over the book

That will make us stand tall again