I am not poignant. I am losing nuance. I beat you over the head. I am cliché. I am a
caveman. Cavewoman. A cave. I am not genteel or radical. I am pissed. I am not always specific. I am beat. I am losing steam. I leave image with image and word with word.
I take too many pictures. I am literal as fuck. I bully my way through a text. I barrel my
way through. That Neanderthal thing again. I resist understanding. I understand cuz I
resist. I’ve forgotten how to break a line. The line breaks me. I use I too much. I do get
that the I on the page is still not me. I do get that. I don’t know if you get that. I don’t
know who I am in this time. I have lost a great love. I am suffering through a terrible
leader. I don’t know where to turn or who to be. I am looking for my days to reacquire
some rhythm. I can’t be kind in the morning. I can’t be kind. I am mourning. I miss
touch. I miss conversations I had in the past. I miss the conversation I had with my past.
It is leaving me. I don’t mind erasing. I want to know who to address though.
Sheila Maldonado is the author of the newly released poetry collection THAT'S WHAT YOU GET (Brooklyn Arts Press, 2021) as well as ONE-BEDROOM SOLO (Fly by Night Press / A Gathering of the Tribes, 2011), her debut poetry collection. She is a CantoMundo fellow and a Creative Capital awardee as part of desveladas, a visual writing collective. She teaches English for the City University of New York. She was born in Brooklyn, raised in Coney Island, the daughter of Armando and Vilma of El Progreso, Yoro, Honduras. She lives in El Alto Manhattan.