Calling poets to a greater role in public life and fostering a national network of socially engaged poets.
By Jonathan MendozaAdded: Wednesday, March 7, 2018 / Jonathan Mendoza’s poem was awarded First Place in the 2018 Sonia Sanchez-Langston Hughes Poetry Contest, sponsored by Split This Rock. Sonia Sanchez lent her generous acumen as judge for the contest.Osmosis: in which molecules of a solvent pass through a membrane to achieve equilibrium.
Example: I place my hand in a pool of salt.
Some stays. Some seeps into my skin.
Everything goes exactly where it’s supposed to.Example: Prudencia Martín Gómez leaves Guatemala at 18
to surprise her husband in California.
Like most beings, most of Prudencia’s body is water.When Prudencia is found
60 miles from the US-Mexico border,
a pile of clothes, limbs, and a puddle of wet sand,
is she the corpse?
or was she
the water?If Prudencia is water,
and the desert is
a ground, then Prudencia went
exactly where she was supposed to.If migration is a pipe
and employment is a sponge,
then Prudencia went
exactly where she was supposed to.Some would like to build a wall,
and water always seeps through,
but much does not.Most days, water dries in the bed of a pick-up truck
clutching a seven-year-old daughter.Most days, water is the daughter
engulfed by men who are storms.Most days, water flees the storm
only to join other water,
like at the bottom of a riverbed,
or drowning in an All American Canal.Most days, water must leave a nation
that is on fire
into the nation
that fans the flames. Most days,home is a war,
even if they called it a cold one.
War is only cold
everywhere it isn't a fire.Home was the gun fire
and the crossfire
and the day an American-backed coup
burned Prudencia’s village to the ground,and water fled up,
evaporated,
northbound,and some days
water survives long enough to know comfort
as something other than a fantasy.
but most days
water exists just to be consumed,just to be exploited,
just until a nation’s fear
sheathes all the water like ice.ICE stops everything.
ICE stops children on their way to work.
ICE stops parents on their way home.
ICE stops a loved one from praying at a hospital bed.Water leaves the eye,
and Prudencia is a small ocean on her husband's face.Salt stays,
sings the water its own name:sal
sal
leave
leaveEverything goes
exactly where it's supposed to.
Prudencia leaves,becomes
a cloud.
Prudencia becomes
the rain.
Prudencia
soaks the earth.
The earth begets
a seed…
They tried to bury us.They didn't know we were
air.
They didn't know we were
water.
They didn't know we were
everything the earth
would become.
Jonathan Mendoza is a Boston-bred, Chicago-based Jewish and Mexican-American activist, spoken word poet, social justice educator, and musician. He is a National Poetry Slam Champion and the winner of Split This Rock’s 2018 Sonia Sanchez-Langston Hughes Poetry Contest. Jonathan serves as a community organizer for housing and youth power with Pilsen Alliance and as a teaching artist with Young Chicago Authors. Find books and updates at his website and follow him on Twitter and Instagram.