POETRY: F*ck the Fork | South Seattle Emerald

Presented picture: Original photo from Albert-93 / shutterstock.com; Image transformation by Emerald Staff.

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by Clara Olivo

We eat with our hands
a natural connection to the earth
honoring hands
who grew the grain
ground the mass
and shaped the tortillas
Serve a generous meal
suitable for devouring
with their own skin

Our hands
that touch the food
we shared
laughed
and mourned in
Knead the memories
our past
in the daily bread
that nourishes us
the truth of our divinity
that lives and grows in the ground,
Lingering in the air we breathe
expand upwards and outwards into the sky
A humble memory
That we only participate in order to return
to
from which we came
Bellies full of love
and wasteful
Abundance

Our hands
deliver and receive the ship
the premium worthy of ours
insatiable desire
recall
That we are one

Clara Olivo (she / she) is a queer, neurodivergent Afro-Salvadoreña. Her words capture the trauma and triumphs of life in the diaspora and how displacement, colonization and survival shaped her life. Clara honors herself and her work by bringing the strength of her ancestors into everything she says, writes and does.

📸 Selected image: original photo from Albert-93 / shutterstock.com; Image transformation by Emerald Staff.

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POETRY: F*ck the Fork