- By Daian Martinez (she/her)
- Art “Quilt-Swaddled” by Anushka Lodha (she/her)
I arrive in a strange city where I'm greeted by a woman with pale, white skin and starry eyes. I'm frozen in space,
holding my breath until she
wraps me into her, my body molds perfectly against her warmth. In that moment we trade heartbeats, equally fast and
loud. The noise drowns
out as she cradles me deeper, an intoxicating scent, familiarity, wafts through my nostrils.
It smells of pan dulce and
sunlit concrete after rain, my two favorite scents. And suddenly there's rain and thunder.
Her teardrops fall heavy on
me, and I hear the rumbling, the guttural moanings emerge from within
her. She cries for the families that were broken apart, for the
unwilling circumstances that forced her away. She cries out for the
overwhelming joy of reuniting with the daughter she left five years ago.
