Honduran killings fall like rain
on Roatan—always, on any—
grandmothers, babies, gangs.
Cartels robbed our culture, old
ways gone, night promenade
through San Pedro Sula square
only an echo. A bad place for
lawyers, single mothers, I
fled fast with my daughters,
a price on us all when I
could not, would not get the drug
king freed from jail. Jehovah’s
Witnesses flew us fast
to Philly, our new home here,
where I shop Cousins Hispanic
supermarket for mango,
plantain, oxtail for stew,
Pediasure for my baby
to grow, all aisles singing
with Spanish, so nice. I make
my own business, Nelsy’s
Cleaning, dazzle clients
with my speed, detail work,
the polish I give their kitchens,
mirrors I make of their floors.
Good cash money, safer than
Honduran law. I put myself
in God’s hands to bless me
with more work, our own home.
My oldest wants Christmas,
American Girl dolls, but I
tell her we Witness, no more
Feliz Navidad, I know Jesus
did not ask us to lay tinsel
on trees, give gifts on his birthday.
Last night in my dreams Tony
Hernandez, from jail, ordered
my girls and me shot in the head,
so I rescue them from school in
my new Honda Pilot, drive us
through the air to Center City
Macy’s where fake snow wreaths
elf windows, white lights lace Santa’s
Workshop, pure pagan magic.
—From the poet’s book-in-progress, America’s Daughters & Other Poems, a series of 20 woman-voiced interior monologues.
lives in Fairmont, Philadelphia, her adopted city, where she reads and writes, hikes and bikes, serves as a home chef/caterer, and loves on her family and friends. Her poems are published in Blue Lake Review, Corvus Review, Ginosko Literary Journal, Mobius, Quartet, The Southern Review, Uppagus, Verdad, and Yes Poetry; and forthcoming in Evening Street Review, West Trade Review, and a handful of anthologies. Her book Biking Through The Stone Age is forthcoming in 2022 from Kelsay Books. And she is currently at work on a collection entitled America’s Daughters & Other Poems.
