A POEM A DAY

I'm just happy to be here.
April 14, 2020

13/30: APRIL IN HOUSTON

Let me set the scene. April in Houston. Days after a storm. Blue sky and easy light slips through the blinds, fills the room like a river. A blue-jay lands on the fence outside my window. I’m overcome with the need to exclaim there’s a blue-jay outside! Amazed, at the phenomena of a day. The blue-jay flies away before I think further. Dusk is here now. Going on a walk with Adela, the fresh air anchors me. Across the street, two brothers toss the football in an empty lot. Draw routes on the football for each other. The trees in my neighborhood are as tall as the power lines. The air tonight is too cool for April. I am running at my own pace now. Seeing the world change frame by frame. Faster than the blue-jay that flew away. Over the treetops, the sky is an unbothered indigo. A star shines so bright, Adela thinks it’s a planet. I think it’s a star. We follow it all the way home.

1 Comment
April 14, 2020

12/30: EASTER SUNDAY

Spent the morning staying in bed
while Jesus rose from the dead.

Growing up, Easter Sunday was such a production.
The basket, the outfit, the pictures, the church functions.

Now, pictures of my little cousins hunting cascarones
in their front yards, the confetti cracked on their good clothes.

Smiles big as a Resurrection Sunday feast at a loved one’s
house. For me, it was grandmas. Lockhart, TX. We’d run

All over the front yard, baskets in hand, determined to find
something besides our name that we could call mine.

Spent the whole morning in dress clothes
just so I could go run in the dirt with mis primos.

Some elder says a prayer over the hot food, we call it grace.
My mom made me a plate, told me to go, find my place.

Long ago, before I was born, I’m sure my mom had a plan
for days like this, probably carved the moment out by hand.

Today, with nowhere to go, I reminisce.
Still trying to love from afar all the people I miss.

Leave a comment
April 14, 2020

11/30: I WON’T WORRY MY LIFE AWAY

In the sixth grade, if we got up early enough,
my mom would take my brother Brent and me before school
to Round Rock Donuts,
with enough change in our pockets
we didn’t have to walk into the morning
empty-handed.
we bought donut-holes by the bag
the orange icing, its own little sun—
it is the perfect bite.
A ritual, I would come to learn,
are small blessings on a schedule.
Back then, in the mornings, Brent rode shot gun,
a birth right in my family
and that meant the radio belonged to him.
And most mornings, it was 96.7 KISS FM
with Bobby Bonez as the DJ –
Prince of the Round Rock Airwaves
spinning top 40 hits for the youth of America.
I remember The Remedy by Jason Mraz
playing every single morning for weeks.
I had it memorized by the end of day 3
I won’t worry my life away
I won’t worry my life away
The morning car ride to school
meant we were lucky enough not to ride the bus
it was a ritual.
Whenever it played,
the backseat became a sunrise symphony
a boy bursting his lungs
free to sing
without judgment and without interruption.
You can turn off the sun but I’m still gonna shine.
That line can probably explain
why my light shines the way it does
without judgement and without interruption.
Never knew a shadow I couldn’t overpower since then,
What my mom thought, who knows.
She was on her way to work,
She was dropping her sons off at school.
She had a mission, a purpose.
Meanwhile, I found joy in the in-between.
Another ritual,
my own remedy.

Leave a comment