I Talked to That Spirit Again
Joshua Jennifer Espinoza

 

 

I talked to that spirit again

the one who says I deserve

goodness and joy and the

 

daily sight of women burning

down parking garages. She says

there is a harmony between

 

nature and artifice, that we simply

need to find new ways to introduce

them to each other. So I wrap my

 

head in freshly plucked leaves and

jump through the window.

The broken glass becomes a

 

blessing upon the earth. I see

myself as nothing more than a scar

against its surface, a rough daydream

 

of healing. The spirit says I am wrong,

that I am the world denied by the

world, the language rejected

 

by the tongue. I tell her the time

for debate is over—

all that is left is for me to sink

 

back into myself and kiss and hold

every beloved soul who wipes the

blood from my eyes and

 

calls me by my true name.

 

 

~~~~~

Joshua Jennifer Espinoza is a trans woman poet living in California. Her work has been published in The Offing, The Feminist Wire, PEN America, Washington Square Review, and elsewhere. Her most recent collection of poems, THERE SHOULD BE FLOWERS, was released by Civil Coping Mechanisms in 2016.