Monday, August 24, 2009

Origins

Parts of our identity develop out of our origins -- whether through the nurturing (or lack of) of our family or through the nature we inherit genetically from our ancestors is up for debate. Sometimes we define ourselves as a form of resistance to the things around us we want to reject. Other times, we take the best of the people and places we grew up to mature into a stronger person. Our poems came from explorations of these relationships.

We hope you enjoy our poems and would love to read your comments. Also, feel free to imitate our imitations and send us your own identity and origin poem.

2 comments:

  1. Here's my origins poem:

    BACK TO THE FUTURE

    I wish I could have ridden
    on my great uncle's junk
    truck with my teenage dad
    we could have struggled
    to carry rusted iceboxes
    and flat tires through
    the depression together

    I wish I could have
    snuck love poems in
    my mother's purse
    when she was in
    a different high school each year
    we could have played
    Back To The Future

    Instead I have given
    change to every store-
    front solictor I've seen
    and verses for all dark-
    haired women kissed

    I have been the combination
    of my parents almost
    half a century

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  2. And here's my identity poem:

    THE GREAT DIVIDE
    COMES TOGETHER

    I lie next to a woman
    born 2,000 miles south of L.A.

    We talk about what we have
    in common from our childhoods --
    watching The Flintstones --
    only in her casa -- Los Picapiedra

    Listening to the radio
    as teenagers we both loved
    "From The Beginning" -- but
    Laura didn't know the title
    until she heard it from me

    When we visit her relatives
    in Los Angeles -- I'm a foreigner
    in the city of my birth
    feeling conspicuous about my poor
    pro-nun-ci-a-cion

    I punch KLVE
    in her Metro -- I imagine
    watching my wife
    cumbia in high heels

    When I choose to wrap
    my eggs in
    a tortilla con salsa -- I know
    I'm really eating mi amor

    Desnuda piel against naked flesh
    brazo over arm
    pierna on leg
    we naturalmente create a nueva race

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