M O O N A: 730 PM

by Jess / November 2nd, 2025

I wanna say I’m sorry, Ma.
For pistachio baklava and blush martinis,
They call me ‘revolutionary’ and ‘artist,’ now, Ma
I should have been writing,
Protesting in the streets,
But I wanted to celebrate,
Poetry and a books release,
I wanted to forget for a night, or two, or three, or a few hundred,
ICE in Chicago streets,
The trill of my ‘r’ in ‘write,’
When I write, as I write.
Wanted to forget ‘revolutionary’ and ‘artist,’
Means bullets in the back, Ma
To them,
Its just my wetback.

Jess is a Mexican American writer and human rights activist from South Texas. She has been published by The International Human Rights Art Movement, Radical Catalyst Literary Journal and Writers Resist and is nominated for a PEN Robert Dau and Pushcart Short Story Prize. She holds a master from Brandeis University in conflict resolution and her most recent work can be found at Missing Perspectives. Read other articles by Jess.

This article was posted on Sunday, November 2nd, 2025 at 8:00am and is filed under Poetry.