inspired by Esmeralda Santiago's When I Was Puerto Rican
Bruny Rivera
Grade 10
We moved to Macun
when I was four
Outside the new house
I saw a circle of red dirt.
I didn't like it
We moved to Macun.
The window was metal
I burned my finger
Never touch a wall on the sunny side
We moved to Macun
I had rust on my fingers
I licked them, a dry metallic taste
curled the tip of my tongue
I couldn't suck my thumb that night
We moved to Macun
I screamed, imagining my skin disappearing
Into chunks, into the invisible
mouths of hundreds of tiny black
specks creeping into parts
We moved to Macun
I turned away from her, my mother,
And curled into a tight ball of shame