i dont share a lot of my poetry with my family
it will shatter their existing image of me;
                                  of who they want me to be
im too gay in my writing
      too activist
      too deep
      too controversial
      too...
real
so i share it with strangers
all of you beautiful strangers whom i will never meet
because you understand me more
than people ive known my whole life
you appreciate my depth and we can share our
love, pain, and struggles
                                             together

Poema Code Switching
By Aylin Soto-Aleman, Mercedes Caballero, Jesus Martinez, Marta Silva, Alex Alejandre
16.4.15

El final de una etapa
The end,
The beginning of a new journey
un camino
A un mundo extranjero
Un deseo, un sueño
A dream
Haciendo mi propio path
un camino
rostros nuevos , new failures
historias nuevas , new experiences
a sequel to my story, con hojas rotas
y mojadas    


INMIGRACION

La memoria es un salto
entre continentes
crossing invisible borders
swimming in the rios
corriendo debajo del sol

La memoria es los abuelitos
ancestors cooking arroz y frijoles,
flan, driving through for hamburgers,
popcorn, sipping on horchata
Basilica
No todo lo que brilla es oro
not all rainbows and butterflies,
Clarita y sus cien años
Ruben y sus Tacos del Camino Real
El rancho
Midnight movies
Quiero a quien me quiera
It’s been a long day, without you my friend
Mexicanos al grito de guerra
Oh, say can you see by the dawn’s early light
Tepechitlan, Jerecuaro, Guanajuato
Long Beach, Argentine, KCK,
Chihuahua,
A Distance Between Us
El puente, the bridge.
Three Little Pigs en casa, at home,
don't step out marranitos,
la llorona te va a llevar

Memory is a leap
between continents
Cruzando fronteras invisibles,
Nadando en los rivers
Running under the sun

Born in different places
Pero las mismas intenciones

Backwards clocks sing distorted chimes, in this promised Land. Nothing solid beneath me now, I struggle just to stand.

Stories told us bended lies, and nailed us to this cross. Head held high we carry on, searching for what is lost.

They said to seek religion, but I always break the mold. Fortune tellers tossing cards, of dreams that just grow cold.

Hope must be a grown up wish, neither really stick. Any path leaves us marked, with scabs we like to pick.

I waisted youth to get here, to stand behind the line. They preach about the promised land, then left us all behind.

I left feeling alone,
and now that I'm here I am lonelier
that I've ever been.
It's sad, right?
How can one never see the light.
But in the end pain will explain,
what words never made.
No wonder we decide suicide,
no one ever make us pride.
Kindness is strongly mistaken for weakness,
in a world were love is frequently mistaken for
forgiveness.
Excuse me if I am being too blunt,
but in this world we are consider naive,
people who don't express their feelings correctly are always
the one I fear the most.

I carry the world on my shoulders, my back about to break. Determined not to let it drop, as the ground will often shake.

Earth is angered by the way, I sit here always kneeling. Pressed between the land and sky, my mind is always reeling.

Wind is my best company, sweet caresses to my skin. Soothing away my sorrows, since calamity did me in.

Light radiates and fills me with warmth, my heart always aflame. But when darkness begins to set, the shadows say I'm to blame.

I carry the world strapped to me, a vow I cannot break. Sacrifices made for greater good, praying for souls that are at stake.