Asi

This is the city that saw the raw mass of me, the quick

and slow of me, the I’m afraid and I can’t of me, the

it’s beyond me side of me. This is the place that showed

me I fit. I take space. This city let me, let me, be. My

hair really is that size side of me, each shaft an electric

tendril vibrating its own, humming life, the untamable

side of me. See how the world dances above my

eyebrows? This continent plus that continent, together,

on y va ensemble, vamos juntos, side of me. The city

that said, “Me gustas asi,” don’t comb down anything,

don’t tame nothing, pa’que? The leaf that blows away

in autumn and returns breaking bark in spring. The leaf,

the branch, the trunk, the root, the tree, all of it,

I am all of it. Asi. Aqui.