Between mother’s & Father’s Day I wanted to share this poem I wrote about two years ago when I first started to use writing as a form of trauma healing.♾

manzanilla de la muerte ??

Happy Father’s Day to the man

Who first broke my heart

I don’t mean that in a way

To cause you any harm

You taught me to use my own 2 arms

1998 the first memory that made me great

You came to babysit cause mom was

Workin late

I remember the movie & top ramen we ate

In that moment I met my fate

You kept going in & out of the house

Time passed & at 3 I understood

Wha words couldn’t say actions would

Mom found me, alone tucked in bed with a book

That’s when you taught me, the love I give to myself Is the only thing that can’t be took

Baby books that read “Arielle misses her dad”

Letters I never sent, reading them makes me so sad

What did I do so bad To became a child no one had

I can’t give all the glory to you

God knows my mother helped too

The poverty pain 

Runs through our family trees roots

A poisonous origin made me bulletproof

The Gods science experiment

My earthly experience, proof Pressure creates strength that can’t be measured

A diamond in the rough

Created with such lack of love

Manchineel tree, the most deadly & toxic

That’s my family, dead leaves

Broken branches, half of it burnt to ashes

With only one apple left, I didn’t fall far from that tree

Eve took a bite out of me

manzanilla de la muerte

I lied there rotting

Thinking how far I had gotten

Adversity, a fertilizer that helped me grow

My seeds hit the dirt, my rebirth

Creating my own heaven on earth

Making sure my roots run deep

I pray the lord My Soil to keep

No more time to weep like the willows

Thank you for helping me see

My family tree starts with me

manzanilla de la muerte ?