<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><header class="entry-header" style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><h3 class="entry-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.1; color: inherit; margin-top: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-bottom: 20px;"><span style="font-weight: normal;" class=""><font size="4" class="">Letter To Myself From My Great Grandmother</font></span></h3><div class=""><span style="font-weight: normal;" class=""><font size="4" class=""><br class=""></font></span></div></header><div class="entry-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><p class="Gomery_poem" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1em;">Remember, when they took our portrait</p><p class="Gomery_poem" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1em;">they had not invented smiling for the camera.</p><div aria-hidden="true" class="wp-block-spacer" style="box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; height: 30px;"></div><p class="Gomery_poem" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1em;">Do not think we were other than stones</p><p class="Gomery_poem" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1em;">in boiling water, clapping together, making that steam.</p><div aria-hidden="true" class="wp-block-spacer" style="box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; height: 30px;"></div><p class="Gomery_poem" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1em;">Girl with mercury coursing your bird-bones.</p><p class="Gomery_poem" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1em;">Did you think it was you who invented this brittle strength?</p><div aria-hidden="true" class="wp-block-spacer" style="box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; height: 30px;"></div><p class="Gomery_poem" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1em;">Girl in the clothing of children and men.</p><p class="Gomery_poem" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1em;">Girl who cannot stop reading.</p><div aria-hidden="true" class="wp-block-spacer" style="box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; height: 30px;"></div><p class="Gomery_poem" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1em;">I laid the seed of you in a bed of cabbage.</p><p class="Gomery_poem" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1em;">Did you think we have not glowed in the dark somewhere before?</p><div aria-hidden="true" class="wp-block-spacer" style="box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; height: 30px;"></div><p class="Gomery_poem" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1em;">I chased the demons through the night rooms of the house</p><p class="Gomery_poem" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1em;">and when I caught them they started to pull branches</p><div aria-hidden="true" class="wp-block-spacer" style="box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; height: 30px;"></div><p class="Gomery_poem" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1em;">in for the funeral pyre. I told them your name</p><p class="Gomery_poem" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1em;">they grew quiet, said nothing.</p><div aria-hidden="true" class="wp-block-spacer" style="box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; height: 30px;"></div><p class="Gomery_poem" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1em;">Your peculiar name, burning a charm through my tongue. </p><p class="Gomery_poem" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1em;">Girl with dozens of tiny electric hairs that light up when you’re afraid. </p><div aria-hidden="true" class="wp-block-spacer" style="box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; height: 30px;"></div><p class="Gomery_poem" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1em;">I loved women and the pearls of their friendship. </p><p class="Gomery_poem" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1em;">Wouldn’t you like to know how.</p><div aria-hidden="true" class="wp-block-spacer" style="box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; height: 30px;"></div><p class="Gomery_poem" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1em;">Wouldn’t you like to know how </p><p class="Gomery_poem" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1em;">I preferred my potatoes.</p><div aria-hidden="true" class="wp-block-spacer" style="box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; height: 30px;"></div><p class="Gomery_poem" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1em;">Wouldn’t you like to taste now the salt</p><p class="Gomery_poem" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1em;">of the soil that gave me my body.</p><div aria-hidden="true" class="wp-block-spacer" style="box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; height: 30px;"></div><p class="Gomery_poem" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1em;">Girl, grow your nails, stop stripping them back</p><p class="Gomery_poem" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1em;">with your teeth. You’ll need your sharpest</p><div aria-hidden="true" class="wp-block-spacer" style="box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; height: 30px;"></div><p class="Gomery_poem" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1em;">bones for a demon much more serious</p><p class="Gomery_poem" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1em;">than your own doubt.</p><div aria-hidden="true" class="wp-block-spacer" style="box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; height: 30px;"></div><p class="Gomery_poem" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1em;">In my dreams I drank something other</p><p class="Gomery_poem" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1em;">than water and now you are drunk.</p><p class="Gomery_poem" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1em;"><br class=""></p><p class="Gomery_poem" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1em;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Mónica Gomery</p><div class=""><font face="American Typewriter" class=""><span style="font-size: 21px;" class=""><br class=""></span></font></div></div></div></body></html>