Stainless steel,
granite countertops,
crowded cabinets,
and branded appliances.

Whirring,
clanking,
beeps and whistles.

All ours is not.

You won’t find my heart there:
left to be abandoned in a lonely corner,
only greeting soles on holidays,
when arms are forced to open to guests
and lips are stretched to reveal lying whites
because deep darks abided in our chests.

You’ll find it in enclosed in the hall.
Confined, airless, even claustrophobic.
But there are no cobwebs here.
No mildew, no rust,
no crumbs or dust.

You’ll find it underneath the floorboards,
creaking with every footstep,
playing the chords that made up the rhythms and beats
of systolic and diastolic melodies.

You’ll find it in the windowsill,
planted with the succulents,
resilient to forgetful hands
and yet affectionate to sunbeams
who pulsed perfectly.

There are days when the sunshine feels insensitive.
But it is in every throb and rise, murmur and fall,
that life floods in.

It’s funny to me when people say the kitchen is the heart of the home.
If it was, my heart would be empty.

*—S.C., September 23, 2015

Silver sliver slices through
whites, glides.
Pop.
Yellow blood bleeds,
spills, sludges.
Salt sprinkled on the sparkling slate
meets tongue.
"Good mornings" sung.

*—S.C., March 25, 2015

You told me you loved words
and so I started writing you love poems,
passionately concealing them
in between sheets of books.
I started lending you pages
of myself, hiding within each signature
giggling, imagining your face
once you stumble upon my words,
finding them nestled within yours.

But maybe I misunderstood,
because you never came by
to browse through Aquinas
or Ahumada or Alvarez.
You never sought to re-read
Lopez or Lewis--those whose
words you said you've kept
lovingly locked within.

I wouldn't have waited for so long
if I had known that you've already
loaned your words and settled yourself
in between someone else's sheets.

*—S.C., October 18, 2015

Hey, I don't mean any offense, but man,
your lyrics lack essence!

Walking disasters with their gang signs and excuses
of artistic freedom spit out words
and pass it off as lyrics;
with their rebellious attitudes,
rhymes from ******* to *******;
addicted, afflicted, constricted, predicted.
Please.
Words you produce
are misused, overused.
With twenty-six letters and endless combinations,
your lyrics sound more like quotations!
I've heard those stories before.
If you want to stand out,
stand up
and walk through disasters.
I want words
that stir,
that move,
that breathes
a different air into these lungs
who's tired of clones and copies,
words that no longer shake this body.
I want words of liberation,
acclamation of passions,
filtration of frustrations,
words of sensations,
plantations and gestations
of hope and light,
strength that will keep me in sight
of the goals in the Fight.
Now that
is artistic freedom.

*—S.C., October 2, 2014

Failing fingers taunt her promise to keeping despite destiny's disordered attractions. Amidst entwinement's slim truths slept Hope's awakening.

*—S.C., October 25, 2014

They can thank their stride-clicking heels for their towering stature, but when their hands fail to give, their status is fails to compete.

*—S.C., October 24, 2014

He told me to take a breath after forgetting to breathe.
I didn't realize He would fill my lungs
only for them to take my breath away again.

*—S.C., October 23, 2014