A Year in Poetry has begun in Santa Ana

The Santa Ana Literary Association is embarking on a year-long poetry project called: Santa Ana, a Year in Poetry. Working in conjunction with the Santa Ana Public Library, each week we’ll feature one poet from the local area.

Communion

By: Sandra Esmeralda De Anda

I carved a cantaloupe, my soul, under the Best Buy sign.
I looked at it, I cherished it, I praised it!
For staying so sweet yet so bitter when it is not home.

Someone recently asked me where home was and all I could say it is that time when we weren’t afraid.

That time we used to live off those BB gun blues, shooting pellets at each other’s bodies like rainfall after a drought pouring into the crevices of our parents’ dreams.

We were loose seams — but we were tethered together, chasing the vermin around like they were geese, like there was no Police Station right smack in the middle of something they called affordable housing. We used to eat the MREs the church used to give us & gambled the crackers & chocolates away
in a game of marbles or cops & robbers.

Our troubles were invisible. We felt invincible.

Sandra Esmeralda De Anda is a non-fiction writer, standup comedian, and cultural and political critic. She is currently the Program Coordinator for The Orange County Justice Fund, an immigration bond fund. Her writings have been featured in The Voice of OC, The OC Weekly, Makara Arts, and Longleaf Review.