Revisiting My Parents

By Victorio Reyes
 

Revisiting my parents

I sit here,
Years after your passing,
I’m in shock
I am uncontrollably happy
I am overwhelmed with positivity
And you are here,
Stronger than you’ve ever been,
Sometimes,
I burst into uncontrollable
Fits of giddiness
I get so giddy
That I think I’m not real
That brother on the corner
Tests me by telling me I’m a punk
And I want to love him
In a beyond hippie way
I love all life,
Because we exist together
And positivity frees my soul like lab rats
At an animal rights
Protest.
And my soul runs down
Ghetto streets,
Skipping
Hop scotch +
Double dutch.

I regret to say sometimes my soul
Smokes a dutch
No regret for the herb
Just realization that I’m
Still a slave to dutch masters
But I have heard of two types
Of slavery,
Physical and mental
And physically I am a slave,
I can’t walk on private property,
I can’t defend myself from
Police brutality,
But my mind is free,
I climb mountains in Nepal,
And shares love with beautiful people
Who don’t exist to most
They can’t take nothin’ from me now
They can’t take nothin’ from me now
I thought I lost the most important
Pieces of my existence
But now I realize that your death
Was my rebirth,
Now I am an opera singer
Exclaiming my dreams through
Halls with giant echoes
And my song begins every second
And my destiny takes place in
Between breaths
I see mirrors that caste reflections they
Don’t look like me because
They look like you,
‘cause I am a mirror of you,
And you are so obviously living
Because you move this
Pen across this page and
Fool the world by claiming
To be me,
But you are the evolved spirits
That occupy this vessel,
And I’m not afraid
I am finally complete,
Like a tree that reaches full bloom.
And my soul is no longer a tomb
Of chaotic discombobulated memories,
Instead my spirit is a breathing womb
Giving birth to your dreams,
Every second your fantasies
Are reborn through the blood
In my veins that moves my circulation
To feed my brain,
Which commands my limbs to
Carry me to a sunset,
Or an open beach
And the four corners of my soul
Are as clean as a four leaf clover
stretching to kiss the sun for the first time.
And I thank you
For another chance at infancy
Through intimacy with myself.
Most people are born once,
But you gave birth to me twice,
And this is the time,
The time to live
And take every breath
As if it was my first
As if it was my last
And have no fear of past
Because the past is not a separate
Unique entity,
The past is one point on a circle,
That revolves
To the future,
Which is the same point as the past,
And I stand at the center,
Which is the present,
And I admire my process
Breathing thanks, through my
Lips and I kiss the wind.
Like I kissed your
Foreheads while breath
Passed through your lips
For what appeared to be the last time
But now I am content
Because I realize that
Your last breaths
were my first.
 

Bold questions, intimate revelations and rebellious rhythms are carefully blended through the words of young poet and activist Victorio Reyes. His writing compels us to remember a time when the word on the street was political change. Barbara Smith writes that Victorio’s work is “urgently contemporary and at the same time part of a great tradition of revolutionary writing”. Some would say he is a throwback to a generation of Black Panthers, Young Lords, Draft Dodgers, Yippies, and Weatherpeople. Others would say he is on the cutting edge of today’s poetry scene and its marriage with hip-hop culture. His first book “The Rebirth of Krazy Horse –poems for the struggle” is a living testament to a young man’s commitment to create social change, as well as a portrait of an artist willing to reveal his insides for personal evolution. The book is also a dedication to his late parents and reveals his admiration of them and their rebellious generation.

The relationship between art and social change has a long history; Victorio’s work is an eloquent example of this tradition. He began his career as a spoken word poet with a group known as the Rebel Poets. Their monthly open mic’s were chilling performances confronting issues like the status of Puerto Rico, the killing of Amadou Diallo, and the affects of globalization. Since the days of the Rebel Poet’s, Victorio has performed his poetry to audiences around the country. During a cross country tour gave readings for the Green Mill in Chicago, Minnesota Spoken Word Association, the Seattle Poetry Slam, the Berkeley Poetry Slam, the Redwood Coast Writer’s Center and the Ft. Worth Slam. He is the co-founder of the Rebel Army Media Co., created to disseminate positive information through various art forms. His latest project, Broadcast Live, is a musical group created by four young Albany activists. The mission of Broadcast is to uplift and empower people through the rebellious rhythms of Hip Hop and poetry, brought back to its original form with the sounds of live guitar and drums.

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