Mujerista

Written by: Silvia Angulo

 

Tomorrow, after yesterday I am Latin-

Dominican woman in America.

Singing a Reggaeton laden lullaby

 

And it sounds like:

 

-rent raised four hundred times the minimum wage

-seven hundred times my aunt’s wage.

 

-Displacement,

-of Highland Park street vendors,

-and of Brooklyn bodegas.

 

Somewhere, on the corner of the world

ten-year-old women pose in bleach

white wigs and pumps. Peddling

chromosomes and inquiries of tongue.

 

And out there, the great trans-parent

Guadalupe-

holds to prayer beads blessing

their pride and burns.

 

Oh goddess of blow.

 

Oh spirit of mouth and trade.

 

Today, I am

mujer of hope.

Raging home, raging state.

 

I will demand financial aid,

and food stamps with

the cheek I hold my poems in.

 

Next week, I am bitch woman body

of coal. Burning, even if

they object my name, and call me sweet-

Heart.

 

I am nothing,

and profound fury. I am island scratched

from blues to throat.

Sometimes, I think a father is right.

Most times, I think a lack of presence,

does not entitle an opinion.

 

I am brown country thunder

brewing, heat wave of mi madre

prim and plotting for expired

Revolution.

 

Silvia Angulo is a Dominican feminist writer currently residing in Los Angeles, CA.  Her work has appeared in The Feminist Wire, Bitch Magazine, Wolf Willow Literary Journal, Brasilia Review, Haggard & Halloo, among others.  Silvia received her BFA in Fine Arts and Filmmaking at the art and film program at The City College of New York.  She is also a part of the Revolutionary Artists coalition for Affirm National.  

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