This Being the Last Tree
Photo of a Boricua Tree via Flickr
October 14, 2021
This Being the Last Tree
By Naomi Ayala,
For Peter Dolores Ayala Sepúlveda
A Boricua is born from the roots up
to study the light of the universe
the Earth’s drum imbuing feet
with rhythms only the wind can carry
only another Boricua knows.
He is given the cycles
of the land he broke with
for a different kind of freedom.
They are heavy soursop, bombing
the rubble with milky sweetness
to spite the windowpanes of the city
this sky that can take us.
They joint his mind against the urban wind
like the nodes of sugarcane.
This being the last tree, his laughter
bounding from the last
airport of his imagination
another Boricua is born of it
from the roots up.
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