Mykki Rios

I became bleached reef

 

No color, no growth,

 

I camouflaged by necessity

 

blending with the skeletons I was told

 

I should aspire to

 

begging for a place amongst

 

the hooks and barbs and poisons

 

I never doubted where I came from

 

until the caustic words of school children

 

Where does that confidence come from?

 

Classification before one has even met the self

 

walking a tightrope and paying no attention 

 

to the tank of sharks below

 

A beautiful buoyant thing

 

that comes with being Mexican

 

is that you’re taught not to treat death

 

as an absolute ending

 

I can cherish myself into an altar

 

with underwater flowers rejuvenating

 

I can wish my skin back over my bones