By Sara Santistevan
Incantation
Pisces full moon, waning
eve of autumn equinox.
The stars twirl above, like
emotions flickering just beyond
transliteration’s fingertips.
My muse and I find shelter
on a cool bed of sand.
Speaking truly in this world is tricky,
but at least I dream
in poetry. Poetry is the fey
smirk of a candle flame
and my magic making is this:
network rooted phonetics—mapped out
like the pulsing synapses in the universe
machine—then, plant the seeds
of manifestation
onto paper and re-grow
the tree it once was.
I am small and cloud-fast
when I play with words:
my new Spanish tutor
from Venezuela said I will climb
up the building blocks quickly
because the tongue sleeps
deep within my brain,
and one day, my love will
reclaim it, bubbling forth
child-Spanish
bright as kintsugi.
Sara Santistevan was born and raised in Southern California, where she grew up around vivid storytellers. She fondly remembers listening to her family reminisce in Spanglish over merienda.
Sara graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz with a Bachelor of Arts in Literature and a Bachelor of Arts in Legal Studies with honors. During her time at UCSC, she received the 2021 Reyna Grande Scholarship for her poetry on the Latina identity. This scholarship gave her the resources to work on her debut chapbook, The Root from which Freedom Blossoms (forthcoming with Fauxmoir).
The Root from which Freedom Blossoms explores how complicated mythologies, histories, and cultural norms can live on in the internal lives of people of color. Sara enjoys writing and reading about themes of heritage, language, immigration, girlhood, and the whimsical/uncanny. In her free time, Sara enjoys attending local writing groups, visiting cafes, and dreaming of the day she’ll have her own cat.