Weather: Water Cycle, Solid States, Stability of, see Unstable, see Apply Force, see Apply Heat, See Be Hella L.A.
By Cynthia Alessandra Briano
Collect rainwater like language—guttural.
Let me tell you what my heart can do—
refuse the cloud cover, dissipate the morning fog,
June pushing into July.
The sun something to prepare for
in a city torn apart at daylight.
Raids beginning at 6 in the morning
and carrying on to midnight.
Respite when the poison resets.
I look up the word, abduction:
Law. the illegal carrying or enticing away of a person,
especially by interfering with a relationship,
such as the taking of a child from their parent.
Acid rain falling on our gardens.
Walk around the main street
as precaution. Stop your car
to buy fruit.
I say to my friend:
wash mosquito repellent
out of your eye
the way you do tear gas.
I’ve been reading articles
by frontline medics:
tilt your head
first to the right—
wash one eye,
let the tears
run off your face,
so as not to contaminate
your other face.
Then wash out your other eye.
Cry until you are clean.
Tears are useful.
The body needs
to be useful
when all you can do
is watch
and record
as they take away—
we will say: carry away
by force,
to carry off or lead away (a person) illegally
and in secret or by force, especially to kidnap
our fathers.
They are all
our fathers.
Say: ours.
They are all ours.
And we are theirs.
The weather will
cooperate.
California will
contend.
Some sunny summer morning
the gloom will
melt away. It’s a dry heat. We know how
to take a handful of sand
from the desert if we are desert,
from the ocean, if we are ocean.
From the mountain,
if we are mountain.
We are mountain, limestone, quartz.
We are concrete heat.
We are metallic lowrider hood.
We are piercing gaze.
We are a heart full of earth
filtering the poison
and coming out clean.
Cynthia Alessandra Briano is the daughter of Mexican immigrants and grew up in Southeast Los Angeles. She is Founder of Love On Demand Global and Director of Rapp Saloon Reading Series First Fridays. She is a College Counselor and teaches English Literature, Creative Writing, and African American Arts & Literature.
You can read the entire This Makes up the Sky series by visiting: https://womenwhosubmitlit.org/category/the-sky/