My name
In Latin my name means “star of the sea”. In Hebrew it means “sea of bitterness. It means rebellion; it means “wished for child”. It is like the number 3. A foggy color. It is the blend and compound of many people and places.
I would like to baptize myself under a new name, a name more like the known ne, the one everyone sees. Mary as Monica or Maria or Maggie Yes something like Maggie will do.
And Some More
The Irish got 20 different names for potato, I say. I saw it on the internet. I got a friend, Rachel says. She got 5 different names.
There ain't 20 different kinds of potatoes, Lucy says. There are two kinds. The chopped and the full kind, chopped and full. Only two.
There are a million billion kinds says Nenny. None alike. Only how do you know which one is which?
She got three first names and let’s think, two last names on in Irish and one in Spanish…
And potatoes got at least 15 different names, I say Names for potatoes? Nenny says. Names just like people?
That right there, that’s a chopped one and everyone, looks down. The chopped ones look delicious, Rachel says. She would say things like that.
What’s this one here? Nenny questions, pointing her finger.
Minerva Writes Poems
Minerva is only a little taller than me and she has good shoes so that could be it. Her mother buys her new shoes almost every day and Minerva is probably going to do the same when she’s older. Minerva is happy all the time, because she has nothing to be sad about, every school day or weekend nothing’s wrong. But when her parents have gone asleep or she thinks no one is watching, she cries, puts her hands on her face and lets it all go.
She lets me see her cry. I sometimes cry with her. She is always happy like a butterfly roaming a fresh new garden-but there is always something wrong. She has many troubles, but the big one is her brother, who beats and hits her,
One day she told him to stop. But he doesn’t it was the hardest day, I ever heard of. She cried so much. When she walks away, I’m outraged. Hoping something changes but no. Same story.
Next week she’s back, he’s learned where to hurt her so I can’t even tell. Minerva. I don’t know what to do. There is nothing I can do.
A Rice Sandwich
The special dogs, the ones who wear tags around their necks, get to go to the park. The park! Even they can run around! Ant these dogs at the park go because their owners care and want to let them be happy.
My home isn’t too far from the park, but it not close either, and for some reason I decided to ask my mother to take my dog to the park and let her run around and maybe I could too.
Oh no, she says handing me a knife so I can help her prepare dinner, NO sir. Next thing you know everyone will want me to do more- I’ll be up all night folding laundry two little piles, one with bleach, this one washed by its self, not iron but this one should be. You kids like to have me work hard.
But Nenny says she doesn’t care if the dog goes because then maybe it won’t jump on her or her friend Gloria anymore, Gloria’s mama has yelled at us because Gloria has come home with claw marks. Kiki and Carlos, on the other hand, say that she’s too big to go all the way there.