BY POEM BY VIOLETA RODRIGUEZ
She is fierce
She is love,
She is not about to
give up,
Her bones are stories
of Ana.
Another tube, another needle, another meal,
White coats say Ana never leaves. Though she doesn’t believe one day she says,
“I will be free.”
Home of bones,
Home of white coats,
Home of delightful tiny waists,
Home of happy dead cases faces of beauty, no round faces, no happy honest
Smiles and no pearl like teeth, no mirrors please. One day she says,
“I will be free.”
How much longer?
A place she calls home,
A place where death lingers no feminine curls. No rosy cheeks all is lost but happy
To her is being slim. Another meal another promise, to keep another
tube another needle will her end be near? Mommy she
says “don’t worry my waist is now small”, though she is tired she says
“One day I will be free.”
“No food this time,” she begs please,
She must keep her pretty, she must keep
her ribs.
Carrots are her death, though they don’t understand.
Why can’t they see the reflection in the mirror that she sees. She must keep her pretty she begs; she must not eat.
Bones of steel rip her skin and her daddy he says “Have no fear because you are saved.”
Her daddy’s says, “It will all be done in Jesus name.”
Her pretty girl will come home one day. Her daddy, she says is “is full of faith.”
Another meal, she is
fierce
Another pound, she is fierce
Another needle, she is fierce
And she says “Am I out of the woods yet? Daddy she says, “Keep praying for me.”
Because one day she says,
“I wanna be free.”
Another month, the wolves are gone, the trees begin to grow, green
leafs surround her. The round moon now shines,
and her round face glows, no more skeleton trees the white coats say
“She is free.”
This is part of a periodic creative writing series by University of Texas Rio Grande Valley students of Jennifer Buentello.
