Zemira

When I look at you,

the world feels like it finally chose the right ending.

No scripts, no staged lines,

just two hearts learning their way through the same story.

You don’t need crowns to be royalty.

Mi portóncito

My little gate that swings me across the same arc across the tile patio floor;

the cold metal gray bars pressed to my face, hanging on to

Mi portóncito- the one taking me home

I can hear the party still going 

starting in the kitchen,

spilling into the dining room 

and out onto the deck 

I hear the sound of fizzy champagne filling crystal glasses

I was a room with the lights turned low,

Curtains drawn so no one could see

The cracks in the walls, the quiet ache,

The fear that I was too broken to be free.

I learned to build myself in layers,