Sparkling water

A product of Earth and Water,

I am battle-born.

Skin tougher than

the burnt clay adorning

my mother’s childhood home.

It burnt down in her dreams once

and I think that morning she buried it deep—

Swallowed it down into her pregnant belly

and planted it inside me;

A fire so potent it stained my heart

a ruby-red-pomegranate-like shade.

I don’t let down like the river

five miles west from my father’s town

where he would swim through

Cerulean paradise, currents that

flowed through his veins into mine.

Waters so blue they chilled my soul

from time to time.

But I always defrost—

As I lay trapped under the ice

lungs gone azure,

I kick and punch until my fists have gone numb

red wisps of crimson coming up to the surface.

But I always break through,

I am stubborn as the green grass

that grows above concrete.

I ripen like the mangos hanging

in my tía’s backyard—

orange summer come alive.

I am a product of Earth and Water;

I stand strong and proud yet

I’m raw and sensitive;

a culmination of the best and worst

elements of the universe.