losing our grip on purpose

By Larena Nellies-Ortiz

What if you are not heartbeat pounding / but drum beat cheering what if you do not pin me to the bed in a hamster wheel of thought but reach with an outstretched hand / urging me into a fresh new day

What if I listened to your story / how you’ve been passed along in the skeleton ribbon of DNA/ fingernail biting in bunkers hunger, scraping by, frostbitten toes / a basement full of pickled jars just in case

You came out of necessity, stayed out of habit
but you are not beyond questioning
watch me shape you / into a different kind of legacy

Larena Nellies-Ortiz is a photographer and poet from Oakland, California. Her photos and poetry have been featured in Barren Magazine, Burningword Literary Journal, Local Wolves Magazine, Stonecoast Review, 3Elements Review, Sun Magazine, The Indianapolis Review, Change Seven Magazine, Eunoia Review, Bitter Melon Review and are forthcoming in Wordpeace and The Ilanot Review.