Why Don't You Write About Joy?
Why do you keep writing about all this brown girl suffering?
Because when my mother was last pregnant, fate bathed her in blood,
they took both her child and her womb though they didn’t have to.
Because when my grandmother came to the Anglo world,
they cleaved her name in half.
Because my grandmother lost one, then two, then three
children. one to death, one to adoption, one to theft.
Because my mother was torn from her mother and went crazy.
Because my grandmother lost her daughter and went crazy.
Because every day, us women on this side of the sea,
though wedded to our cooking pots still make bread.
Because when you want to feel better,
you stand on our necks.
Because we still sing with our faces in the loam.
Because when we have nothing, we still have ourselves.
Because we are still beloved to each other.
Because every night the sun still falls below the ocean
where my people dwell.
Because you cannot hear me
doesn’t mean I am not singing.
Because when my mother was last pregnant, fate bathed her in blood,
they took both her child and her womb though they didn’t have to.
Because when my grandmother came to the Anglo world,
they cleaved her name in half.
Because my grandmother lost one, then two, then three
children. one to death, one to adoption, one to theft.
Because my mother was torn from her mother and went crazy.
Because my grandmother lost her daughter and went crazy.
Because every day, us women on this side of the sea,
though wedded to our cooking pots still make bread.
Because when you want to feel better,
you stand on our necks.
Because we still sing with our faces in the loam.
Because when we have nothing, we still have ourselves.
Because we are still beloved to each other.
Because every night the sun still falls below the ocean
where my people dwell.
Because you cannot hear me
doesn’t mean I am not singing.
September 2024
Yael Valencia Aldana is Afro-Latine poet and writer. She is the author of the poetry collection Black Mestiza (University Press of Kentucky, 2025) and the chapbook Alien(s) from (Bottlecap Press 2023). She is a Pushcart Prize winner, and her work has appeared in Torch Literary Arts, Chapter House Journal, and Slag Glass City, among others. She teaches creative writing at Florida International University and is the managing editor of Purple Ink Press. She lives in Florida near the ocean with her son and too many pets.
Art: Kelly Cressio-Moeller, Childhood Faultlines. Mixed media: acrylic, ink, paper, mica flakes on basswood panel, 2023.