We wait and we wait and we wait. Patiently. Lovingly. Anguished. We wait for our schools to be safe, For our streets to be cleaned, For our vecindades to have jobs, And for our kids to walk through these spaces without being criminalized. We wait for our neighbors to stop leering at us, For their […]
Category: Poetry
What is Your Library? Mine is
The single mothers, their fidgeting children, the grumpy teenagers, and the young adults using the printers, the Senior citizens enjoying their classes downstairs, the folks with special needs finding accommodations, and the infrequent visitors who used to come to the branch more often, as well as the various other patrons of the library who breathe […]
Poem in Hand, I Would Like to Welcome You With the Following
I experienced discrimination at my schools before I experienced poetry at them. But the first time I was discriminated against based on the color of my skin, the language I spoke at home, or some other characterization of me, I didn’t quite know the definition of the word discrimination. Similarly, the first time I heard […]
Los Angeles Students, California: Do Not Stop at One March
I see that it was in March 1968 that the students of five high schools across the fourth street bridge in East Los Angeles walked out of their classrooms in order to make their voices heard. They stood in defiance of rules barring them from so much as even uttering a word in Español at their […]
