person Yesenia Montilla, two poems

Yesenia Montilla is an Afro-Latina from New York City & a daughter of immigrants. A graduate of Drew University’s Poetry & Poetry in Translation MFA program & a Canto Mundo Fellow. Her poetry has appeared in The Wide Shore, Prairie Schooner, Gulf Coast, and others. Her first collection of poetry The Pink Box is published by Willow Books & was long-listed for the PEN America Open Book Award. She lives in Harlem, NY.

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ANIMAL

Maybe the only difference
is our obsession with currency
How everything in our
world has become a commodity

Maybe once, my body was
an ocean & all could roam
it                           freely

Nowadays I feel more
like a ferryman begging for coins
as I shuttle my own body

I want to give myself for pennies
or less than that. Imagine if we
were all made of clay & salt, how
less lonely we’d             be

I heard that warriors gather all
their strength from their tresses
& yet I make myself smooth

What I mean is I am an animal
as are you, so when the grass
finally returns roll in it with me

Let’s bathe in dirt & weeds
Let’s claw & bite to show love
The last free thing in this world —

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IMPOSSIBLE THINGS I

After the Cubs win the World Series

I bought a lotto ticket today
Not because I want to be rich
But because I want to be free

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