Jessica Helen Lopez – Poetry

A Night Like This

I went out into the night, the door scraping gently behind
the small sound of the children playing late-night fortress, or super
heroes from outer space. I was just a simple mother then.
Wrapped in a loose shawl, knees naked to the wind and my toes
tunneled the cool black earth. I bent my neck back, ears pointed south.
Let my mouth fall open. I invited the night sky to rest upon my tongue.
The moon was a penumbra and I was an uncertain shadow, wavering
beneath its eclipsed eye. Give me something, I breathed. Shake me into
wakefulness. I breathed, Give me something. The stars never gave notice,
each one a vacillating tassel in the sky. This is my life. The year’s last lunar
flare and the Huntress moon quietly dims.

Jessica Helen Lopez is a nationally recognized award-winning poetry slam champion, and holds the title of 2012 Women of the World (WOW) City of ABQ Champion. She’s also a member of the Macondo Foundation. Founded by Sandra Cisneros, it is an association of socially engaged writers united to advance creativity, foster generosity, and honor community. Her first collection of poetry, Always Messing With Them Boys (West End Press, 2011) made the Southwest Book of the Year reading list and was also awarded the Zia Book Award presented by NM Women Press. She is the founder of La Palabra – The Word is a Woman collective created for and by female writers and artisans. Please visit the website http://lapalabra.abqnorthwest/.  Lopez is also a 2012 Ted Talk speaker and her talk, “Spoken Word Poetry that Tells HERstory” can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1QGpJL2zXQ