by Mireya Perez
The photograph of my father’s family
When he was 14 standing
Behind his father reading the
Newspaper and his younger brother
In the communion outfit in the
Left front and to the right mamá
Abuela so elegant in her silk pumps
And fox-collared dress coat
With baby Tita on the floor by the
Vase where Tia Julia the oldest
Was dropping a lily next to her
Sister Bertha by the velvet drape
And to her side Tia Nina in
First communion veil and dress with
Pretty Tia Alicia protectively behind.
In my new home
I place it on my desk’s
Upper shelf in a copper frame
To remind me of who I am.
Mireya’s poems leap from English to Spanish and back again, invoking an array of spirits. Her poetry appears in Caribbean Review, Revista del Hada, NYU Poetry Review, and in Anthology of Colombian Women Poets, among other places.