Demetria MartinezAuthor, activist, poet, lecturer and columnist
July 10, 1960-
Poets are citizens first, lucky enough to be literate, and therefore part of a global elite. That brings with it a special responsibility, and that is to help bring forth voices that are silenced.
Read Lisa Alvarado's interview with Ms. Martinez at La Bloga.
"Elena at Five Years"
Elena warms a brown egg
Between her palms, close to her lips,
Cold from a carton,
Chosen from the dozen.
It is the center now of a sphere
Of kitchen towels in a drawer
Next to an Amish cookbook,
Next to the oven's white side.
For three weeks at 3:15
Elena will breathe on that egg
Held between her lifelines
Against her grape-stained lips,
She anticipates the birth
Although brown eggs, her mother says,
Can't hatch.
But at 5, Elena
Has a good ear for heartbeats,
Sidewalk cracks cry
When her tennis shoe touches them,
The lave chips that embroider
The yard have names,
And a brown egg is throbbing
In the cup of her hand.
From Claiming The Spirit Within Edited by Marilyn Sewell. Copyright 1992.
Anastasia is hosting Poetry Friday this week at Picture Book of the Day
2 comments:
What a wonderful, wonderful poem! The creation of an innocent, welcoming, believing, and inclusive-of-others world (they are integral to that world)--one full of possibility. Oh to be 5 again!
This is exquisite. Thanks so much for sharing it!
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