Freedom by Caroline Suárez Rodríguez

POETRY

I wish I could remember the first poem I wrote,

before falling asleep on our way to Ponce,

a notebook on my lap,

my fingers, covered with ink.

I wish I could remember if it was about distance,

(the distance between my father’s elbow and my mother’s insecurities).

I wish I could remember if it was about the wishes I tucked underneath my pillow every

night,

(about waking up with straight hair instead of knots close to my neck).

I know I didn’t write about freedom,

I didn’t know what freedom was.

Or maybe I thought it was the smell of acerolas in my grandmother’s backyard.

In Ponce,

after waking up with a notebook on my lap

and my fingers covered with ink.

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Caroline Suárez Rodríguez is a Caribbean Literature PhD student in the English Department at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras. She has a Master’s degree in Peninsular Literature and Culture from Illinois State University and a Bachelor’s degree in Education with a minor in Hispanic Studies at the University of Puerto Rico. Her poems have been published in The Latino Book Review and The Acentos Review. She reads and loves in Santurce.