Yzie Del Rosario ‘25
This is one of three poems that were inspired by a chapter in the novel Valentine. In that novel, the main character works to reclaim her sense of self after surviving a violent assault. Her mother was deported back to Mexico, and she has only her uncle, a Vietnam war veteran, who is trying his best to support her and help her heal.
Call me anything,
Because every time I hear it, I hear his voice.
Out in the oil patch,
he played his music loud
Why wouldn’t he?
Who was there to hear?
The scar begins below my breasts,
a meandering path down my torso.
Luché, luché, luché
Thin scars cover my feet–
cactus thorns, steel, barbed wire.
All the things I stepped on
walking away from his truck.
Tina’s hand brushes mine.
I jerk away.
The last time I felt hands on my skin–
I remembered.
I reach under the pillow,
fingers running across the folded pocketknife.
Estaré listo