sjsprWriting

I am hyphenated.

Asturias, Galicias, San Juan;

lay-over in Kansas.

I am dual-passport,

dual-citizenship,

split nationality.

Born red, white and blue

from red and yellow.

50 stars, to one, to none.

I am the birthmark on my left leg,

birth-marked in the west.

I am, pero también soy.

The last Godás,

Martínez-Godás.

I am the weight of two nations,

on a tiny island; 100x35,

5’1 ¾ .

I am uncertain, unstable,

sovereign, under foreign reign.

I am undecided, guided by:

“alzad los brazos [hija] del pueblo español”,

“hija del mar y el sol”

in the “land of the free”.

I am Spanish blood,

born American,

nationality: Puerto Rican.

Complejo napoleónico,

boqui-abierta perpetua,

Oradora del “yo no sé”,

eternamente ojeruda.

Constantemente esperando el amanecer,

para solo caer dormida.

Enana vertical; gigante de horizontes.

Inmune a las alarmas,

apegada a las sábanas.

Auto parlante humano,

de corta respiración profunda.

Pianista,

de teclas inalcanzables.

Indecisamente terca.

Amante del luto vestir.

Cantante de ópera:

fatal.

Psicóloga teórica.

Política. Poética.

Frenética.

(I had written 2 poems about identity already this school year and had exhausted all of my use of poetic language of my identity on them already, so I decided to join them. The first is more about the cultural ties of my identity, the second of my personal identity.)