They called it child’s play,
imagination run wild,
a call for attention.
But my aunt could see ghosts
living
in their own
ever circling world
and they convinced her she couldn’t.
They called it grief, want, longing.
But my aunt saw her mother in the kitchen
Just days after she died, apron flying behind her
humming songs that toggled between
the life and death border but echoed nonetheless.
My aunt rolled over in her bed, shut her eyes,
and convinced herself that she was dreaming.
She heard voices, running horses,
in the ancient apple orchard she worked in.
Felt the ghost blow air into her ear
as she showered and was told it must have been someone
whistling outside.
This new land was scary enough without ghosts
so she chose to believe them.
And worlds of magic, psychics, what could have been,
twisters of colors that my aunts could have woven
fall upon my clumsy hands, my shrinking chest
and what I call my distracted intuition.
I don’t see anything,
but I convince myself I do.
Untitled
I'm Known for Procrastinating
Sooooo I'm just going to post some old things tonight to make up for lost time. The first is a thing that was never meant to be a thing but rather a supplement for an interview of sorts. The first "draft" was pretty rough (I was tipsy when I wrote it) and even had some wrong word usage. This version has gone through one revision (looked at by Joshy) and will maaaybe be revised again soon.
I remember the way things would work while I was growing up. An hour or so before any meal the children would be outside playing, the men would be out working, and the women would be in the kitchen. The cycle would repeat itself three times a day, giving the women only limited time to actually sit around and talk as they pleased. I was too young to appreciate it back then, but I really do admire them now and the lifestyle they lead—that some of them still lead. Since I was the least tomboyish of the girls I would often get excluded and would run back into the kitchen and watch my aunts and my mother as they prepared the meal. One of them would always be stationed on a counter, taking small balls of dough and flattening them with a wooden rod into a tortilla shape. I would steal some of it and pretend I knew what I was doing.
Funny how years later, at an age by which cultural standards I SHOULD be able to prepare a decent meal, I find myself doing the exact same thing. I have declared that during this winter break I will learn how to cook something and my aunt readily volunteers to teach me how to make something simple—flour tortillas. The mixing of the ingredients to make the dough is easy; probably because I’m sitting back and watching my aunt do it. But trying to actually spread the small ball into a flat tortilla is harder than I thought. I’m no longer a child playing a game so I can’t pretend my deformed creations are something beautiful and edible. Not only do I lack the patience, I also have what I call “crooked hands” which prevent me from doing anything crafty—or making anything symmetrical, really. At the end my tortillas look more like amebas than anything else. My aunt is a sweetie and tells me that it is a good first try and that I should not worry too much about it. After all, I have other things to do than stay at home and make tortillas.
You did know that they murdered him, right? My dad’s brother? His only brother, actually—our only uncle. It happened while we still lived in Michoacán, that’s why you have all those second cousins over there. Well, anyway, he was murdered, but they never arrested the man that killed him even though everybody knew who he was. Well, they had a pretty good idea of who it had been. I mean, even afterward that family became enemies with our family. That is why we moved over to
Psicofonia=EVP
I procrastinate a lot and so I didn't really write anything today. Nooot that my goal is to write something everyday (time doesn't allow it) but I should at least write something tonight right? Right.
But again, I had no time so instead I supposed I should talk about what I want to do and why I decided on this tittle.
My writing has always been mostly memoir and this time it's not going to be too different. However the things I want to focus on this time around are mostly dealing with my family and the past, not necessarily me. It'll be a bit of fiction and non-fictions since it will be mostly me making meaning of what I know and what I've heard rather than actually going in and interrogating my family.
But yeeeeah. Woo writing!