Poem: "Abstract Shapes"


Abstract Shapes


        those abstract shapes of who I was
which she found so much easier to love

            Julia Alvarez, “Folding My Clothes”


The army uniform that I hated
my mother spa every Saturday,
and rested on a bamboo pole
to dry with her flesh-colored bra.

The supporter of my oppressor
is my oppressor too. My mother
is an oppressor who does things
for me, like your mother for you.

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