Mariella Mendoza

Hi femme

Hello femme

We could go on a date.

We could go to the garden

Where the water is sweet

And look at the flowers

I’ll bring a book with all their names

So we can watercolor on their categories

And replace their Latin names with Indigenous ones-

I don’t know much of my grandmother’s tongue

So all the flowers will be named

Hello

And

Goodbye.

Oh femme

Don’t you know that I miss you

Oh femme

Did you ever tell anyone that we kissed?

Oh femme

New York City is so lonely

And there’s not many gardens

Or riverways

Or secret bicycle trails that lead to forbidden creeks.

But femme

I’m so glad that I met you

I’m so glad that we kissed

And maybe let’s go on a date

Because femme love is a never ending ocean, not a destination, but a source of life that pulls you in, and though I know I will never have you, because you are too magic, too brown, too femme, to become a possession, I will also never stop loving you.

Oh femme.

You changed my life.

I will name this flower

Huk Kutikama.