Cycles and Transitions
A Letter to Myself
Like my shaved head growing curls
Aries season starting with a bang
My body leaning into a stranger’s embrace
The stranger and I share a mutual favorite book
This stranger becoming a friend
Like my coffee turning shades of caramel
when I add this delicious milk
And my fingers looking more like my mom’s each year
My hero becomes a human again
and these humans around me become my heroes
Spanish turning into English, Spanglish, whatever it wants
Like my hips carrying salsa and merengue
and my tongue carrying soul and r&b
Celia Cruz and Aretha Franklin holding hands
And maybe James Baldwin and Hector Lavoe too.
Like orange being my favorite color again
Having a favorite color at all, like a 5 year old
Like being a boy and a girl and everything and nothing in between
Living in the duality imposed on me
and living beyond the binaries because IDGAF
Crying while I sing about happiness
Finding beauty where I was told there was none
Calling the disregarded, worthy
Transitions in my body
From infusions to rest, from rest to rapid heart rate
Like eating the same food my parents ate
after rejecting their culture for so long
and craving it, now
Like loving my curves and my hidden places
Enjoying what I make of myself in solitude
Happy New Year
May the transitions never stop.
