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.

Credit

Originally published in Poetry Northwest. Copyright © Claudia Castro Luna. Reprinted with the permission of the poet.