Sandra Maria Esteves

(from Aloud; Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe)


SANDRA MARIA ESTEVES
PUERTO RICAN DISCOVERY #23
PORTRAIT IN RAISING SELF-ESTEEM

Flirtacious dreamers
we judge ourselves all wrong


Backward guilt
feet-first jumpstarts into birth
innocent to realize
rain days can be good
blessings from heaven
disguised


We watch for signs
Survival manna
Slow to discover learning lessons
on an oceanic route
full of rocky struts
fathomless caves
voluptuous hills
sea water from the unexpected


The colors in our eyes are misleading
Trapped in partisan confrontations
about the cost of rice
the oil franchise
a video game rate race
for electronic cheese
Every car and plastic bag, a failure
Signatures we tag around
Cheap ads cheating
our children, ourselves


There are no joysticks to the inner life
despite wrappings easily discarded


We are infants compared to the universe
a wise great-grandmother
who can harvest the starts around the moon


She cannot be bought
No pricetags are attached
The inner life has no boundaries
No jail cells--not a one
No fixed points of reference to confine a soul
No eye-catching boxes
to pollute everyday sidewalks


The names of all things are sacred
like thoughts breathing clean air
More than loving
living means giving
like homegrown food
from the eternal harvest within


But for real.