Life’s simplest pleasures
By Melissa Espinoza
Breaking egg yolks
Pressing earrings through their punctured holes
Fresh towels
Too-sweet coffee
Shiny silver strands of hair
The awkward silences after you kiss me
Department store samples
Fresh sprigs of Rosemary
Peppermint saliva
The knowledge that one day
I get to
devour
you
Whole
I
I am I am I am
I am soft
Gums served on porcelain plates
Tender muscles placed as centerpieces
Hair hung from chandeliers
Tus pasos que dejaste en los pasillos
Los insomnios de tus sueños
Ventanas oscuras y piedra fría
I am red
Anger, fury, rage, doubt
Red lace adorning my mother's lampshades
Dead roots suffocated into the earth
Red outside, blue inside
Miles and miles of brown thread unraveling in your palms
Dead roots suffocated into the earth
I am heat
Rotten pomegranates in sunlight
A sweetness that simmers against bone
Dried nectar on fresh wildflowers
So many things
Me
And you
Can hardly bear it
I am I am I am
Melissa Espinoza is currently a MA candidate within the Literature program at New Mexico State University. Melissa is currently most interested in works of Feminist and Chicanx writing but also enjoys poetry and cultural literary criticism. As a Chicana writer, she hopes to bring her love of her mother tongue into her writing and showcase her roots within her many works.