POETRY by Erika Martinez
red
blood moon new
slim line dark
maroon drools from my womb
connecting vulva
to pooled water below
three menstrual decades elapsed
unable to stuff minutes or months
under the folds of my breasts
as i wait,
stare between thighs
i want to contain clots
with cupped hands
since earth welcomed me
with finite time
to give life
palms opened to say,
look, this scares me
am i losing pieces
of myself?
how do you bleed?
perhaps this is the end
of choice between two
possible regrets
Lemny Perez
purple
your little spirit taunts
would it help to know
we would have welcomed you with purple
brought you home to bouquets of hydrangeas
pain is a violet bassoon
bellowing alone
to a concert hall filled with ghosts
hope bumps bruises
and ice can only numb
this body black and blued
as i imagine you
with curls gathered in lilac ribbons you
running through a field of lavender you
indulging in a bowl of blueberries
you
as i imagine you
Lemny Perez
orange
biting winds slice through my nothingness
through this tree-lined street littered with maple leaves
jack-o’-lanterns heckle me from window sills
from thresholds and crooked stoops
october can only be the month when we first conceived
i tested positive the day i dressed myself
in carrot-colored skinny jeans and paisley
then explored sonoma valley vineyards where canopy foliage
like never-ending orange streamers
unrolled over the landscape
it’s been a year since then
a baby mesmerizes me
feeding himself cubes of squash with his pudgy fingers
his mother thrusts him into my arms
as if contact with his flesh
could pull me from murky currents of loss
but sorrow inundates with rapid reminders
of what will never be
as friends flaunt mother-daughter snapshots in pumpkin patches
i comfort myself with bundles of marigolds
carnelian stones in my pocket
and at the end of a sleepless night
i look for mars in the sky
just before dawn
About the Author
Erika M. Martínez is the editor of the forthcoming anthology, Daring to Write: Contemporary Narratives by Dominican Women. Recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship and a Hedgebrook Writing Residency, she holds an MFA in English and Creative Writing from Mills College in Oakland, CA where she currently resides. Her writing was adapted for the stage and has been featured in several publications including the anthologies, Homelands: Women’s Journeys Across Race, Place and Time (Seal Press) and Wise Latinas: Writers on Higher Education (University of Nebraska Press). She has taught creative writing in the Dominican Republic and is the editor of the annual Middle & High School Voices for the National Writing Project in New Hampshire. She is working on a memoir and her first poetry collection, One Day My Hand Will Touch the Ceiling. To find out more about her work visit www.erikammartinez.com.
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