Cover Photo: This photograph is of a kid pushing himself on a skateboard. He's in motion against a red wall.
Photograph by Kin Li/Unsplash

Where we go to be together

This poem was written by Hayley Mojica in a 12-Month Poetry Collection Generator taught by Angel Nafis.

Poetry collection synopsis: Communion

holds its breath before digging deep for the remaining climb— our home on the hill. Cement kisses the metal bottom no matter how slowly we roll the rental in.   Welcome home, strangers.

and imagine or remember when it was a field. To see the damage of our absence, knowing they could not compare to all the other hours we’ve waited.

with each look my mother gives that tender over there patch, that landing beside her own childhood home. I hear the wood boards speak as Mai makes two dinners. My mouth waters at the smell of her bacalao.

beside my grandfather’s machete. It’s been years, but they still know to leave room in their song for the air and the blade and the green making love.

pinched under a wheel as he takes the ride down I worry about the greedy asphalt thirsting to drink his skin.

Ese muchachoand we all agree.

Hayley Mojica is a Newark-based writer and photographer. She is a resident artist at Index Art Center in Newark, NJ and the co-founder of the writing collective Numen, a service-oriented community where people express, heal, and co-create through words. She led in piloting a photography program for NYC youth with non-profit First Tech Fund and has been published in Reconstructed Magazine: Vol 2.