mi gente

Guess which one is my mom. :her eyes are closed: fitting.

i feel badly everyday i do not call her. so why dont i call her? right? one would think. this is my family. aunts and uncles. some cousins. my grandmother is the one next to my mom. small afro. plus my beloved great grandmother. her eyes are closed as well. figures. my ladies. i came from those ladies. eyes closed and all.

my great grandmother would make us the best hot chocolate. yes in puerto rico on a warm night. it did not matter. every night we would ask for cho co la te! CHO KO LA TÉ. Bisabuela, por favor! Everyone would sit around in a circle on the balcony and drink. Con galletas. I would take my cookie and drop it in and let it sit in my hot chocolate until it was nothing. that is a taste i will never taste again i just realized. rotating laps. abuela, to my bisabuelo, to my abuelo if he made it out to us that night, to my tia (which ever one was around) and finally end up in my mami's lap with my head resting on her chest, whispering i was tired and wanted to go to bed. playing with her curls. noticing things about her face. Pronto. Pronto. false promises. my grandmother has a bad habit of never knowing when to stop talking. we always ended up staying much longer than we ever needed to. as a child i could only listen to the towns gossip for so long. my great grandmother would be in the kitchen clearing up pushing some more chocolate on us, but my grandmother still talking about whoever, and this person with that person, but that person went crazy, and another husband left another wife alone to raise the kids. asqueroso. disgraciado. mooooommmmmmmm take me to bed. my great grandfather whispering may god bless them. may god bless the husbands. the kids. the mothers. the home wreckers. he wanted god to bless everyone. sincerely. eventually i would go downstairs alone and run into lizards on the way. scared of the bugs. and the sounds puerto rico makes at night. maybe tomorrow they will put the hammock up for me. i could still here them all talk from my bed.