The House on Mango Street
"Temporary, says Papa. But I know how those things go."
"...sweet to put your nose into when she is holding you, holding you and you feel safe..."
"Someday I will have a best friend all of my own."
"She looked out the window her whole life, the way so many women sit their sadness on an elbow."
"How do I know this is so? She told me so."
"Cathy is tugging my arm and I know whatever I do next will make her mad forever."
"I'm not even sure why I thought it, but it seemed to feel right."
Gil's Furniture Bought & Sold
"It's like all of a sudden he let go a million moths all over the dusty furniture and swan-neck shadows in our bones."
Meme Ortiz...if I had to pick one.
"Down at the base of the tree, the dog with two names bark into the empty air..."
Louie His Cousin & His Other Cousin
"Marin screamed and we ran down the block to where the cop car's siren spun a dizzy blue."
"...he's fat boy, though he's not fat anymore nor a boy."
There was an Old Woman...
"...and almost break like fancy museum vases you can't replace"
"...is afraid of nothing except four-legged fur. And fathers."
"You can never have too much sky. You can fall asleep and wake up drunk on sky, and sky can keep you safe when you are sad. Here there is too much sadness and not enought sky. Butterflies too are few and so are flowers and most things that are beautiful still, we take what we can get and make the best of it."
"There's that wide puffy cloud that looks like your face when you wake up after falling asleep with all your clothes on."
The Family of Little Feet
"We are tired of being beautiful."
"I'm no spartan and hold up an anemic wrist to prove it."
"Where is my favorite daughter you would cry, and when I came home finally at 3 p.m you would appreciate me."
"All night the boy who is a man watches me dance. He watched me dance."
"Hips are scienctific-they bloom like roses."
"He had nice eyes and I didn't feel so nervous anymore."
"I hold and hold and hold him."
"..and then we began to dream the dreams."
Elanita, Cards, Palm Water
"Baby, I'll look again if you want me too."
"...and how was she to know she'd be the last one to see him alive."
"The mon is beautiful like a balloon."
"Wears a felt hat-winter or summer-hot or cold, doesn't matter."
"Everything is holding its breath inside me."
"They grow up and grow down, and grab the earth between their hairy toes and bite the sky with violent teeth and never quit their anger."
"he not here, for the landlord, no speak english for anyone else and holy smokes."
"...locked indoors because her husband is afraid she will run away since she is too beautiful to look at."
"What do you think when you close your eyes like that?"
"Minerva cries because her luck is unlucky."
"I am tired of looking at what we can't have."
"I have begun my own quiet war.
"...and sings with velvety lungs powerful asmorningglories."
"A girl that big, a girl who comes in with her pretty face
all beaten and black cant be falling off the stairs.”
“this is where I wanted to die, and where I tried one day, but not even the monkey garden would have me.”
“Why did you leave me all alone? I waited my whole life.”
“She married him in another state where it’s legal to get married before the eighth grade.”
“…and so she trudged up the wooden stairs her sad brown shoes taking her to the house she never liked.”
“I felt ashamed for having made such a selfish wish.”
“…no, this isn’t my house I say and shake my head as if it could undo the year I’ve lived here.”
“Clean as paper before the poem.”
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