Melissa Calderon-Rougié
2 Poems
Split Tongues
On good days the poetry
is a constant waterfall
from the peak of my lips
other days the words coagulate
into a gelled mass
leaving my body full of blood clots
como cuando el español
se queda en mi garganta
ahogandose con el inglés
como yo
un pais
partida en dos
certain only
del silencio
that conquers both.
To Charlie
Because she was 7, she placed a small glass
over the spider with the long spiny legs, ignoring
its frantic efforts to find an exit.
In a past life, she might have been lightning, the electricity
left lingering along her restless fingers.
Because she desired a pet, she gave it a name.
How easily the child plucks the flower from its bed to
call it theirs. Charlie the spider lived a very short
time before dying. She grieved for weeks on end.
If all life was spent redeeming the one before
it, the child, now adult, might understand her current
predicament. As it were, the adult finds herself chained
to the hours.
In a past life, she might have cracked the sky in two.
Bio
Melissa Calderon-Rougié (she/her) is a Peruvian-American writer, mother, and creative born and raised in New York. Her writing has been published by Newtown Literary, Raising Mothers, and Gnashing Teeth Publishing among others. Her work explores identity, mental health, and familial bonds extending across space and time. A Kenyon Review and Tin House writers workshop alumna, Melissa is the eldest daughter of Peruvian immigrants and lives with her husband, daughter, and son in Queens.