featured poem nanúa by Yolanda Arroyo-Pizarro

nanúa is born
her mother is a friend who sings three languages
yoruba’s of southwestern
the Taino speaks
the castellan
the mom, my friend
does not like the chains
nor the cadalzo                           (scaffold)
she hates also the carimbo                   (stamps)
y los látigos                           (and the whips)
so little is Nanúa
black as a ash powders extinct from fire
so soft
as an aguacero leve                      (light downpour)
she was named María by la ama            (the mistress)
share a few toys with la ama             (the mistress)
same age, both girls
so clear skin, la ama                 (the mistress)
so dark skin, la esclava                      (the slave)
a Djembe drum whispering
entenga pototó
smiling both

Yolanda Arroyo-Pizarro won the National Institute of Puerto Rican Literature Prize in 2008, Yolanda Arroyo-Pizarro won the Latino Writer Residency from National Hispanic Culture Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 2011 and the PEN Club Prize on 2010 and 2006. Arroyo Pizarro is the Director of Puerto Rican writers participating in the Second Puerto Rican Word Festival attended in Old San Juan and New York on 2011, and she is the Editor of Revista Boreales, a literary magazine.