Saturday March Quarantine 2020

iris de anda

I wake up with anxiety
mid dream they tell me a secret
the dark carries so much light
I can see inside of skeletons
the closets are open wide
people are screaming silently
piercing the air of our sanctuary
it’s getting loud out here
the world is colliding with egos
tu amor no es suficiente
ahora puedo ver mas aya de este azul
echoes of skin once touching
lifting the bandages from an open wound
look at the crimson pain
painted over scars
scared is what they want
submissive bodies waiting for how long
some of us don’t know how to follow orders
holding the spirit at the tip of our tongue
alone with the candlelight
chant us somewhere near cause it’s feeling far
tell me where to go from here
screenshot the last person you remember near
we will make it thru this my dear
ancient echoes knock on walls
in this house we are daydreaming
our body temple whole
En tu casa todo cambió
Everyone spread their loneliness across the screen
When they come and tell you what to do you run
into the woods into the supermarket 
remember you forgot the lemons
while singing in the aisles of warm lullabies and soap
clean the government cabinets with vinegar mixed with half truths
illusion tube is on the rise 
feeding fear into the veins of the future 
and you’re buying in
sinking in the abyss of this dark comedy
that has become your life 
stuck in a bedroom with windows that lead to horizons
far beyond Italy and China 
when it gets dark the stars are lonely too
quarantine the ants and they show up in mass droves in parking lots
stay put darling
it’s for your own good
stay in my love
it’ll save the bees
stay with me but far away
it will make sense sometime soon or never
however grounded in pachamama’s womb
just stay

 

      Super Love Quarantine

The schedule of the apocalypse 
has been interrupted
by too much everything
Sleep when you need to
Eat when you’re hungry
Cry into your pillow 
to the tune of Los Bukis
Laugh in your naked now
YOU may text them once or twice or few midnights in a row
Remember
YOU are here for a reason
This season 
is the bloom
Super Love Quarantine

Super Love Quarantine
is the bloom
This season
YOU are here for a reason
Remember
YOU may text them once or twice or a few midnights in a row
Laugh in your naked now
to the tune of Los Bukis
Eat when you’re hungry
Sleep when you need to
Too much everything 
Has been interrupted by
The schedule of the apocalypse

 

      Recoup XX

Am I not deserving of nice things?
Of a doorway that leads home
Of a window to call my own
Of dirty dishes that can sit for hours
Of hallways that echo memories
Of a bookshelf that needs dusting
Of a roof I can stare at from my bed sheets that hold my flesh & sin & sueNos

Four walls
The house of the North Star
Eastside Los Angeles
La Casa del Sur
West Coast 
Four directions
Roof of my mouth, Floor catches my fall
As above, so below

Are we not deserving of nice things?
Twenty families in search for more
The neighbors kick in the door
The glass cuts thru skin pores 
California Highway Patrol rolls in with hogties & roars
Orders to restore empty homes 
Housing the ghost of Caltrans Corridor
Crimes against Humanity
Capitalist mentality
Brutal symphony
Disrupt ceremony of hearth

Mi Cuerpo un Caracol
Rebirth
Reclaim
Rename ourselves rebellion
Remember our Abuelos wrath
We are the Rose that grew from blood
We are the bullet that resurrects 
We are the key that opens the chest

Are we not deserving of nice things?
I have bolt cutters to the gate
Show up in the morning of your American Dream
Blow off some steam in your coffee cup
Gonna make you drop the routine
This is no longer make believe
This is 2020 reality

Burst in with the candor of your lust
This life is more explicit than it seems
Us seeking shelter rearranges your dreams
Us piercing into your nightmare streams
Cause your one paycheck away from our extreme
Makes you mad at a nine to five slave mentality
Wake up midlife crisis
Someone is already dead & you realize you are me

Iris De Anda a Guanaca Tapatia poet, speaker & musician who has been featured with KPFK & KPFA Pacifica Radio, organized with Academy of American Poets, performed at Los Angeles Latino Book Festival, Feria del Libro Tijuana, Casa de las Americas in Havana, Cuba and is named one of Today’s Revolutionary Women of Color. Author of Codeswitch: Fires from Mi Corazon & Roots of Redemption: You have No Right to Remain Silent.

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Life in Quarantine: Witnessing Global Pandemic is an initiative sponsored by the Poetic Media Lab and the Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis at Stanford University.

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