a self: today i got to be puerto rican, african american, and taíno on an official government form for my son’s birth
certificate. my identities had official categories. all my life i’ve been fighting boxes and writing in my identities on lines.
in high school, i was a different ethnicity every year because i listed them all and someone else chose, most likely based
on a quota they wanted to fill. someone fought to be recognized, particularly as taíno, and here in berkeley there was a
system that saw a people. back to singing protest songs as lullabies. what doors will my children open for others?

just 8 days after he was born, nia wilson. sing again. how with a cut throat? sing still. so many names. so many mothers
moaning into harmony. god, why can’t we sing more life? mark life and all the lives within. if not in the bones’ brunt,
sing a spark. ash makes fertile, too.