Day 6 and 7
Day 6 (power)
Candles
Ten years ago
the lights went out.
No one could pay the
angry white man bill
Because
there isn’t enough hate
in good hearts to find that coin.
And the price kept going higher.
In the darkness we cried
for the lost baby boy
with the bunny ear hat and
the spiderman backpack.
For the abuelita muscled into
no license plate black van
by masked misplaced hatred.
For those young ones afraid
they will never get to become
who they really are.
In the darkness we wandered
touching walls slick and frightening
closing in with prohibition
and shouted no into the murk
voices swallowed by the
derisive laughter of the rich man.
Then she lit a candle, so did he
and they.
Refusing to hide or cry or wander
any longer.
So much light
we don’t have to pay that bill,
but offer the light to the one
standing next to us.
Day 7 (a feeling)
I came across this quote I saved from Toni Morrison
Grown don’t mean nothing to a mother. A child is a child. They get bigger, older, but grown? What’s that suppose to mean? In my heart it don’t mean a thing. –
Toni Morrison, Beloved
Emily’s Valkyrie
Hey my girl,
My moppet, my colt, my
brilliant amazing daughter
I need you to know
from your toes that recall the
third place I kissed and counted
on the day you were born
to your
knees bruised from
daredevil falls on the playground
to the top of your
sweet smart head that
I love you in a way
that is like having a supernova sun
living inside me
just like
you did once.
You should
give notice to all bullies
and mean girls
that I am your Valkyrie
and will call down an entire pantheon
of pagan gods to
explain things to them.
Or at least, when that
becomes too much and
You have to face them first
yourself then know–
Know with every cell
in your perfect self
That I will be there
with a lapsit and my arms
around you, holding you
always.