Prompt Response: Púrpura by Sara Gutierrez

Response to prompt: Describe your favorite color without explicitly naming the color

Púrpura by Sara Gutierrez

Hello again.

Hello to the Texas skies outside my window 
After the bottle of Merlot my mother and I share at dinnertime.

Hello to my best friends contagious smile and apple cheeks. 
A powerful Afro-Latina at work.

Hello to the outside ring of my aging bruise that I find in the morning.
How did you get there by the way?

Hello to the juice that drips from his mouth in summertime.

Hello to the feeling I got when I saw her for the first time in the hallway with glitter on her face. 
7th grade nerves and 14-year-old infatuation. 

Hello to the bolero that played on my grandmother’s radio when I was still in my mother’s womb. It ran through the kitchen and into my heart. 
El Corazon.

Hello to the mornings when I look in the mirror and greet myself with a “Hey there Sexy” looking directly at the mole on my neck that has been kissed by the gods. 

Hello to the smell of your sweet milk that stick the delicate parts of you and me together. 
Like morning dew and cinnamon. 

Hello to the sweat I feel on the back of my neck when someone asks me a question in Spanish. 
Like im trapped in the spider web that’s been in the corner of my childhood bedroom. Lilac walls. Chipped paint. 

Hello to the pigmentation on the back of my left arm. 
Permanent and prideful. 
The flower I will never see but I will carry everyday.
A representation of lost childhood and early motherhood.
Violet. 
Violet. 
Violet. 

Púrpura

Te amo 
Te amo 
Te amo 

Image credit: David Beck - Unsplash