Blue Blooded, Felicia Olin

El Silencio de Sangre Azul

(Blue-Blooded Silence)

The thought of breathing in this life

without you, makes me sigh so deeply

I swallow the morning sky.

Blue seeps into my veins, my heart explodes

toward my head, and all that’s left is naught

y mi sangre azul, this blue blood and trails of sadness.

Your disease poisoned my mind enough that I grieve

all stages of you: driving your car, limping across the floor

the wall, the walker, the wheelchair…

…now as you snore beside me, back from the hospital.

With one eye in heaven, cielo

and the other in a book, su libro

my feet rest between purgatory and

where you once tried to stand and write out your pain.

Without you, I am constantly within me, the wound

coated with pages of poems y mi amor.

Words– my only crown, lasting amigos

they surround me like dust in sunlight

or I honor them on paper

though I’m a blind man painting rain.

I remain a laconic muchacha, a bird out of formation

suffocating with the ink before it fully dries.

Sigo invicto pero en silencio.

I remain unconquered but silent. Silent in the hum of poetry.

I am not afraid of silence, only of not feeling.

Te amo como una pluma ama del viento.

I love you like a feather loves the wind. 


Anita Stienstra