Sugar Water

By A.L. Sanchez

Sweetness attends to
sticky traps for beetles.
And I am content with the fact
until I realize
the sweetness smothers me.

and I am the trap.

A hurricane of sugar water
sweetens the blow against
houses
and schools
and holy places.

Conversations of confection
on televised podiums
make sugar of sorrow
and sugar of children
who starve until their stomachs
swell from other children.

A cake of a girl
cut open
to put an end
to the beginning
and declare
‘There will be no more like you.’

​

Like me?
Like those who sweat
through their shirts
chopping sugar cane?

​

Only to then
work to their knees
missing fingers and souls
served on a plate
with something sweet,
like Dulces de Coco
or Mampostial

Es Borinquén la hija,
la hija del mar y el sol,
del mar y el sol.

‘There will be no more like you.’
Yet, here I am.
La hija.