Notes of a Blueviolet Trumpet
For a few months now, early
in the morning, Soledad
knocks at the door and enters
with her blanket of oblivion.
Soledad refuses to answer
a pair of simple questions.
Without detours or minced
words, you question her,
Why do you arrive so early
to annoy me? Why don’t you
let me sleep in peace?
Soledad presses her lips because
she has the answers on the tip
of her tongue but refuses
to answer the obvious.
You toss and turn in the emptiness
of your bed with two nonmatching
heads at the headboard until at last
your salvation catches the light
of the flower moon.
The Moon speaks: When Soledad walks
in through the door, my child, trust me.
Write to me early at dawn. And remember
you are and will always be an eternal blueviolet
iridescence of a gloomy room. Write me!
in the morning, Soledad
knocks at the door and enters
with her blanket of oblivion.
Soledad refuses to answer
a pair of simple questions.
Without detours or minced
words, you question her,
Why do you arrive so early
to annoy me? Why don’t you
let me sleep in peace?
Soledad presses her lips because
she has the answers on the tip
of her tongue but refuses
to answer the obvious.
You toss and turn in the emptiness
of your bed with two nonmatching
heads at the headboard until at last
your salvation catches the light
of the flower moon.
The Moon speaks: When Soledad walks
in through the door, my child, trust me.
Write to me early at dawn. And remember
you are and will always be an eternal blueviolet
iridescence of a gloomy room. Write me!
September 2024
Sonia Gutiérrez is the author of Spider Woman / La Mujer Araña and the recipient of the Tomás Rivera Book Award 2021 and the International Latino Book Awards 2022 for her novel, Dreaming with Mariposas (FlowerSong Press, 2020) and also the winner of the ILBA Book into Movie Awards 2023. She teaches composition, critical thinking and writing, and creative writing. Her bilingual poetry collection, Paper Birds: Feather by Feather / Pájaros de papel: Pluma por pluma is forthcoming with El Martillo Press this Spring 2024. She is currently working on her first illustrated book, The Adventures of a Burrito Flying Saucer and Sana Sana Colita de Rana: Poems to Not Perish / Sana sana colita de rana: Poemas para no morir, a bilingual poetry collection.
Art: Kelly Cressio-Moeller, Childhood Faultlines. Mixed media: acrylic, ink, paper, mica flakes on basswood panel, 2023.