Tells the secrets I would never speak out loud.
The ridge across my forehead quietly gives witness to the worries I’ve carried since childhood.
The burrowed folds between my brows carry the weight of the endless prayers I supplicate a mi gran Dios en secreto.
The creases around my eyes silently exclaim the joy and the excitement I’ve experienced and have sent out a los cielos, al universo. These same ridges have also been the roads mis lagrimas an navegado al buscar caer a la tierra. Heavy with emotion, filled with salt, gravity with a whisper calls them down to water the earth.
The lines that softly ripple from the edges of my lips hacía el resto de mi cara dan un visual to the sound of the laughter that has sprouted in my heart, expanded in my belly and escaped my lungs to fill a room with the sound of mi voz y alegría.
The calluses on my hands tell the story of how love has moved me a echarle ganas para alimentar y proveer para los que más quiero. They speak of my love of work, not just of the secular but also of the land.
The skin of my body tells the stories of motherhood in her markings. She explains she’s grown and expanded. Stretched to her limit to become a warm cocoon for the children she cradled within her. She was a soft and fuzzy blanket. Como si hubiera sido la primer cobija San Marcos en sus vidas pero con el dibujo de su madre. A loving protector she became.
My skin tells the stories of the life I’ve lived. It’s changing. No longer firm and glowing, she’s now soft and wrinkled. She’s become like the leather binding of a beautiful journal which contains the living history of my life. Mi piel es un regalo en el que se anotan las muchas historias de mi vida. Le doy gracias a Dios y a mis padres por el regalo que es mi piel.
– July 5, 2019, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
