you
hi guys my name is Juliet and I’m gonna
recite two poems for you today and the
first one is titled November 1st
the kindness of my mother and the
kindness of October could be sisters
they take me by the roots and demand
that I said bitterness like leaves if
only all it took to change was shedding
to know that starting over means you
must abandon everything my mother
wrestled oceans for white picket fences
and promises of rosy colored legacies
she Fathoms changed better than I have
here I am a silhouetted future here we
are seventeen and dreaming of realities
that only we can fold here where the
ground becomes a beggar we fashioned our
own storms continents are waiting to be
redefined like infant seas reborn still
I am waiting standing under overcast sky
orange yellow hands tumbling down my
back
the weather-worn arm on my shoulder the
Sun and sensibility peak over and
reminder someone the sea reminds me to
breathe fill myself with a new season
switch summer for fall there is beauty
in whatever’s coming the words becoming
worlds in our palms somewhere there is
beauty and impermanence autumn and
running and this
and second poem I have for you today is
titles trying to find home
my parents crossed the ocean cracking
pants and lox philosophies between their
teeth like walnuts Western learned but
foreign and how they holds themselves
like waterlogged apples dangling by the
stem finding unexpected asylum with
strangers the familiar lilt in their
tones carving homes out of each other
but when a cousin questions where I’m
from my tongue becomes a salmon pink and
floundering as if an answer could be
found in a lifetime my family tree is
worn and trampled sieged by storms by
dictators by slavery my kin arrived with
textbooks weighing on their heads and
shackles round their ankles still in a
land we have yet to call home our
neighbors see our cacao hands whether
they be doused in blood or salt water
even this can become a sanctuary
thank you
[Applause]
hi guys my name is Juliet and I’m gonna
recite two poems for you today and the
first one is titled November 1st
the kindness of my mother and the
kindness of October could be sisters
they take me by the roots and demand
that I said bitterness like leaves if
only all it took to change was shedding
to know that starting over means you
must abandon everything my mother
wrestled oceans for white picket fences
and promises of rosy colored legacies
she Fathoms changed better than I have
here I am a silhouetted future here we
are seventeen and dreaming of realities
that only we can fold here where the
ground becomes a beggar we fashioned our
own storms continents are waiting to be
redefined like infant seas reborn still
I am waiting standing under overcast sky
orange yellow hands tumbling down my
back
the weather-worn arm on my shoulder the
Sun and sensibility peak over and
reminder someone the sea reminds me to
breathe fill myself with a new season
switch summer for fall there is beauty
in whatever’s coming the words becoming
worlds in our palms somewhere there is
beauty and impermanence autumn and
running and this
and second poem I have for you today is
titles trying to find home
my parents crossed the ocean cracking
pants and lox philosophies between their
teeth like walnuts Western learned but
foreign and how they holds themselves
like waterlogged apples dangling by the
stem finding unexpected asylum with
strangers the familiar lilt in their
tones carving homes out of each other
but when a cousin questions where I’m
from my tongue becomes a salmon pink and
floundering as if an answer could be
found in a lifetime my family tree is
worn and trampled sieged by storms by
dictators by slavery my kin arrived with
textbooks weighing on their heads and
shackles round their ankles still in a
land we have yet to call home our
neighbors see our cacao hands whether
they be doused in blood or salt water
even this can become a sanctuary
thank you
[Applause]
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