ISSN: 1941-4137
POETRY THAT ENACTS THE ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE PURITY OF GLASS
POETRY THAT ENACTS THE ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE PURITY OF GLASS
María Vargas is a Nicaraguan poet, narrator, and translator. She graduated from UAB with a BA in English and a BA in Philosophy, and from The University of Alabama with a PhD in Latin American Literature. Her work has appeared in anthologies published in England, Argentina, USA, and Nicaragua. In 2010, she won a Hackney Literary Award and, in 2004, her book, Los ojos abiertos del silencio (The Open Eyes of Silence) won the Rafaela Contreras Prize for Central American Women Writers. She’s a member of the Nicaraguan Association of Women Writers and of PEN Nicaragua. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.
Without Protest
They showed me the way,
I followed without protest.
They asked me to relinquish my name,
I gave it up without complaint.
They said subtract, divide, multiply yourself …
I didn’t ask any questions and constructed masks
to become an object suitable for any occasion.
Corrupted by obedience,
forced to conform,
trained to be gracious,
I never offered resistance,
not a word, not a howl, not a raised fist,
what they wanted, I surrendered,
what they ordered, I did,
what they preached, I believed.
It didn’t occur to anyone to mention
that I had the power to protest, to curse, to fight,
someone should have told me
that I had the right to say No!
Glass: A Journal of Poetry is published monthly by Glass Poetry Press.
All contents © the author.
All contents © the author.
