In My Perfect Puerto Rico

My gray mother would be

Combing her mother’s white hair

On their turquoise painted porch

Under mango trees

Among hummingbirds

 

My black grandfather

In the next rocking chair

Happily looking on

 

My four-foot-eight cousin Sonia

Would be out back

In a wooden shack

Washing clothes

Or running in the garden

Tending to her dogs

She wouldn’t walk with a limp

Wouldn’t be sick

She’d have working kidneys

She’d live past thirty

 

My father would be hunting

All over this side of the island

With his best friend Angel Rodriguez

For reusable items

Dumped on the lush country side

They would be recycling pioneers

 

I would have a choice

Of which cousin to visit

We would still be young

And beautiful

 

Yolanda

Lili

Wanda

Evelyn

Ivelis

Hilly

 

We would still be together

And not just old scattered pieces

Of what we once were

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© Nancy Mercado. Published by permission in Centro Voices on 10 April 2015.