45

Born and raised

in a remote Puerto Rican pueblo

in the South Bronx,

20 years of her life

living + working Philadelphia.

The blocks write, perform, whisper,

give birth to pieces of history

scratched on bits of paper,

on school girl notepads

shoplifted from Woolworths,

leather bound journals

antique white pages,

a reflection, dream, mirage.

Bits of a story

Poetry slams on Wesleyan's

library countertops

2am study breaks

acting out on kennedy, cosby, +rockwell's children.

Janina, Morris Carnovski and O'Neill in Waterford

give the gifts of Shakespeare,

Eugene's Mary holding the Oscar,

Picasso raw, Madrid in winter,

Amherst's Emily, El Greco sleeping under her fingernails,

Goya's nightmares and hope,

an unsettling sensation.

Floating through worlds,

Tato brings her back to the

3rd Avenue El. He introduces her to

Alice on Henry Street and East Harlem.

Alice makes a guest appearance

on Nicaragua mountain tops

y ahora que ya sos libre...

yo te quiero mucho mas.

Coffee berries + 100 insect bites,

premonitory vision for early works

with no fear or discipline;

La Borinqueña, New Colony Miss America, Colonialism on the Brain, + Jose's Bitches Ain't Shit.

Philadelphia embraces and suffocates

Alicia in North Philly

creates Scenes from el Barrio

with Lolita, Elizam + Alejandrina

chasing her red Converse Sneakers

all the way to Denver.

She puts them in a box

throws away the key.

Taller + Corretjer's Vejigantes

skip with Alicia

on 5th and Lehigh,

sit in a café in la Havana with

Myra at the Welfare Office,

+ Dreaming of You...Spel and Suave

at Eastern State Penitentiary.

And then...Caridad blesses her.

Gabriel is born

and the Queens of Germantown and Northern Liberties sow the fields. Graciela appears.

52 pages squeeze out of the hairs on Alicia's head

screaming reality and fantasy,

she is baptized by Las Gallas

kikiri kiing en la madrugada.