Oh Say Can You See

By Viktoria Valenzuela

By the dawn's early light, I think of skin; I think of how

Light can shine through my eyelids no matter how hard I close them.

I question, do they see

a lampshade at a neo-Nazi party?

When I think of eyelids

I pet mine with flower petals soaking.

We soak up the sun's rays to make chlorophyll.

Am I a daisy pushed up after someone has died?

When I think of flower petals

I think of honey bees hovering over the sex organs of flowers

and tongues

of black bears. Am I a black bear starving in the forest for lack of bees?

When I think of black bears

I think of polar bears who have white fur but black skin.

Am I a polar bear starving in the Arctic for lack of ice

and seal prey? When I think of I.C.E. I think of brown

skin, that looks just like mine, trying to make it in America.

Am I American if neo-Nazis are running America?

When I think of America, my body aches

for something more protective than skin. Skin is only skin deep.

Skin is only skin

Deep. Black-Red-Yellow-Brown as brown can be.

Source: Contra: Texas Poets Speak Out (FlowerSong Press, 2020)

Disability Poetics