“Glory”

Sonia Guinansaca

Glory

Mi mamá se levanta

A las 7 de la mañana, se baña

Sus pies bendecidos en agua

Es divina

Después, empieza con su maquillaje

Her brown hands

Gently holding the black eye liner

(For a migrant woman these are lines she welcomes)

She places her dark brown hair in a bun

Carefully placing bobby pins

Like carefully placing lipstick

Like carefully placing hope on land

Mami’s knowledge teaches me that my wings

Are meant to be thick Meant to take up space

(These are rituals I grew up with)

So I repeat

Every morning creating self into existence

Between lipstick and softness

Between borders and belonging

(These are ways I survive)

So I repeat

Arching my eyebrows

Jewelry over my neck

Red nails pointy enough to hold homes

Homes I am building

(Homes I left)

So I repeat

Adorning all my genders

(Like the gospel never sung at my church)

This becomes biblical

Let this be an ode to femmes of color

Whose celestial eye shadows crack the heavens

Whose thick thighs resurrect possibilities

So I repeat

What glory we incite

What glory we create

What glory we are

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