After all, I am a Big Girl
The famous poem by the Queen of HP, Janeida Rivera. Janeida blogs at queenofhp.com. Download the poem here.
Walking down my streets
I‚m usually too busy on my cell phone
To notice anything unusual
Starbucks and an antique boutique, what’s new?
As I pass the second sunshine tanning salon and the sushi surplus
I can‚t seem to put my finger on it just yet
I see a bench and since I have walked a couple of blocks
And after all I am a big girl
I decide to sit
And then it hits me and it hits me hard this epiphany:
The chances of us stopping this genocide to stomp out my boriqua pride
Is as likely as me doing a summersault and landing into a split
Where Lorenzo used to sell his alcapurias for seventy five cents is now quite concrete and cold
You see before, before it had this afro-carribe, salsa, meringue, adobo, soul
I‚m just repulsed and sickened by these lively home turned into morbid houses, condos, and what exactly is a Venetian complex?
Is it because I don‚t look like a banana threw up on my head?
Is it because I don‚t frequent the neighborhood hookah bar?
How about you take the fact that I won‚t allow for you to turn Humboldt into a dog park
Or Roberto Clemente High School into a windsor pilates studio
That‚ll offer spinning classes, yoga, and not to mention step aerobics
And stuff that in your hookah pipe and smoke it
Ill eat rice and beans
Right off banana leaves
Not caring to be labeled that pork chop queen
Now my heart skips a beat
And my internal bombazo replicates
This 93.9, lite rock, sellout pop, umbop badubadopba dubop beat
It‚s a little harder to breath
I guess ill pay for a hit of tranquility
Don‚t they sell that at the oxygen spot up the block?
I stand up
Keep walking
Paying more attention
I‚m hungry
Not only for change
Because after all I am a big girl
Baccalao and vianda mouth watering
Sentimanna café, Leticia‚s organic bakery, flying saucer∑wait
How is it that with all these Abuelas and Tias around here there isn‚t one place in sight anymore
That I can get a decent mixta or sazon seasoned chicken thigh
Can I at least get a large bustello?
“Bustello, that sounds hip man
Where can i get some of that?
Is it French man?”
You can‚t have it you poser its mine!
My best friend Ziggys dreads there his
My brother owns his Sean jean and timbs
What‚s next a mini cooper sittin’ on twenty inch rims
Blastin’ “La Tierra de Borinquen”
Middle eastern themes Arabian dreams
Don‚t fake being Japanese just to feed me please
No G A P or banana republican jeans
Would you listen as closely to me
„Eef I talk like dees‰?
Or push me out of the way because I have empty pockets
My pockets
They may be empty, but my souls definitely
Not
It‚s not hollow like that of a yuppies beat nick spot
It‚s not hollow like my parents hearts that refused to teach me espanol
And who allowed for the media to take control
And make them typical
100 % all American
I just haven‚t forgotten I‚m part Taino Indian and African
I just have not forgotten that I am part Taino Indian and African
I will; not for get that I am part Taino Indian and African
And I‚m also a big girl
-Janeida Rivera
