This is how I (re)assemble home
A list for surviving displacement.
2 min readFeb 14, 2020
- An apartment with a built-in bookshelf
- A collection of of black and white photos
- Coffee never runs out here
- A small dog hopping around with a toy me as I write
- An acoustic guitar that I never really play
- Posters from relatives
- Fresh mint
- An emergency can of black beans
- Rice cooker
- Vaporub and coconut oil in the medicine cabinet
- Dried eucalyptus
- A small writer’s desk repurposed as an altar
- White prayer candles
- Cedar wood incense
- Prayers I whisper to the wind
- Playing Jazz and Cumbia and Salsa (dancing like my ancestors are watching)
- Olive oil (for cooking and for anointing)
- Tears welcome to flow at any time
- Keeping every letter from home
- A copy of The Prophet
- A king size bed for good measure
- Six pill bottles on my nightstand to keep Lupus in check
- Always a bottle of Tequila — and Pisco whenever possible
- Shea butter
- Dia de los Muertos necklace and huayruros
- Grey sheets for comfort
- Agave and honey, mate de coca, hierba luisa
- A humidifier (because in Ohio life can get dry)
- Lemon pepper
- Frozen mangos in case nostalgia strikes
- Llama wool blankets
- Echoes of laughter, always echoes of laughter
- My brown skin against a pastel-pink quilt as I write another poem/another list/another poem as proof that I exist.
