Guadalupe S Partida

Guadalupe S Partida Nov 2023

Oatmeal

I see the oatmeal boil in hot water.
That is my mind I think to myself, and that’s all human lives lifting as they are born and sinking once they died

Guadalupe S Partida Nov 2023

In whirl of life draft 1

You swirl in a sweeping of leaves up to the heavens, and I stand again at your grave
your songs spin and join the dried foliage, I hear you sing my name and the flowers you gave me, now dry, spin in air too and so does my grandfather’s songs at your window, my uncle’s guitar before he passed, the tuning of my cousin’s bass and the strumming of my brother guitar melt into the canvas of today’s fall skies. And just when I feel so close to surrendering, I feel all these dried parts of myself begin to lift.

Guadalupe S Partida Nov 2023

I am here to hold you(draft) 1

I am here to hold you my uncertain sorrow, hold you my jubilant cries while holding with my other palm the shrieks of excitement. I am here to walk alongside you as you walk back from a dead end road you thought would go somewhere. I am here in the rain–unwilling to abandon you when you spit out words half peace & half misguided renewals of sadness. I am here for the sentimental-girlish **** others refer to, to lift your chin up and say “baby girl you got this”. I am here to squirm and dance with you when no one else will. I am here to hold you. I am here. Here, to break bread with you. Here to drink of the same cup and comb your hair when you’re drunk.

Guadalupe S Partida Nov 2023

Here is where it breaks draft 1

This cracked vase, shatters
leaving only the space around it to witness

I pass my hand through the space
only air, I breathe–

Guadalupe S Partida Nov 2023

We will grow in the image of flowers(we will become as flowers)subway ride draft 1

When all the sorrow of the world spills over, cup your hands and try to hold it.

Even if you think it might run over,
know the earth below will hold it, too

Together you will see to it; see that these rivers that long have ran with each others blood and that are marked white deposits of salt from histories of tears serve
their deepening purpose and nourish
the soil. That all boiling blister of hate pop
by our consciousness renewed. Growing among the dirt of yesterday, the fruit of all our mistakes will be our garden that grows flowers.

I think of all the atrocities committed by the ego fueled by the emotion of hatred and fear that in retro spect we condemn.

When I was a teenager reading about world history, I wondered how in such horrific things were done. How people could be stand with such  blatant disregard for equality and another’s humanity. How propaganda and statist  language could be used to fool people and fuel sentiments of apathy and even make massacre seem like an acceptable alternative when it never is. I watch as people go on with their daily lives with little to nothing to say about modern day genocides, and I again wonder why.

This is your time, your era,  your epoc–the baton is yours– if you have ever critiqued folks from another time and condemned those atrocities, I beg of you to open your eyes and see for yourself what this time of ours presents you with. Think for yourself. Act even if it is unpopular.

Thus,I believe there should be a ceasefire for the sake of all people involved in the Israel- Palestine conflict. I believe my country, the United States should stop funding a nation who us committed a war crime. I believe in divesting and boycotting corporation(McDonalds, Starbucks, Disney+ and others)  which are actively donating and abiding what is now a textbook genocide.

I believe I should not turn away from the horrors of the world.  And I believe all people should be free deserve a right to live especially young  children.

Guadalupe S Partida Nov 2023

Breathe

From one gut wrenching moment to the next you breathe, you breathe, you breathe
and listen–to the bird’s song and water trickling until the leaves become leaves and you become you, again

Modern day genocide where thousands of children are being killed. To who do we refer to when we say we will leave this earth better for the children . Who do we say are our children if not all of them. I know I didn’t choose to be born where I was born. To speak languages I speak, I simply opened my eyes and there I was.

What fault do young children have to be treated with such cruelty. I could have been born anywhere, been of any race and of any religion.

Guadalupe S Partida Nov 2023

The marigolds sing “Here I am. Here.”

The marigolds sing, and although I cannot reach out and touch you—I can still find you.
You are the warmth and the light and the luminosity of love that sticks to me and transforms life. Yes, the marigolds do sing. I can defend this because I know—
I know you and you and you
your eyes stare back at me, your thin hair I inherit, your beauty marks reflect in the same position as mine. I know that the marigolds do sing.

( the marigolds sing “Here I am. Here.” And there I find you, again)

To my beloved dead