ISSN: 1941-4137
POETRY THAT ENACTS THE ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE PURITY OF GLASS
POETRY THAT ENACTS THE ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE PURITY OF GLASS
Andrew Villegas is an editor at a public radio station in Denver, Colorado. He has worked as a reporter for several publications including Kaiser Health News and NBC’s Breaking News, and he has covered local government and politics at the Greeley (Colo.) Tribune. His reporting work has been featured in The Washington Post, USA Today and heard on NPR. He holds English and journalism degrees from the University of Colorado in Boulder.
Poets Resist
Edited by Michael Carter
August 22, 2019
Edited by Michael Carter
August 22, 2019
Like You
In the mornings, we gather.
Cupped, we kiss our kids on the heads,
check our phones.
We commute, start our day. We have
our own ways that signal our brains
morning is here, and like you, we
struggle to get moving. We start
when the sun is still down, and our little
joy comes knowing we have
one thing you don’t: to watch
its eventual rise alone.
When you stride long-stepped down the street,
like you do, and pass a stranger,
are your thoughts absorbed with impending loss,
or do you notice the weather and wonder
if it’s safe for you to get your car washed today?
Have you ever slept on a concrete floor,
aluminum foil warming you?
Have you ever been the only person
like you in a room?
Mornings we pile in a Honda Civic. Our yellow vests
strapped on, our potential violence identified,
we scale buildings pure Spiderman. We sit dutifully
at our desks and keep our music down.
We clean your children’s shit off them,
care for them, feed them, make their love our own
as recompense for ignoring our own.
Each night you return, we wash
your feet with our tears like Mary,
trying desperately to earn you,
anoint you, like you.
Poets Resist is published by Glass Poetry Press.
All contents © the author.
All contents © the author.
