Bárbarazo - Sydney Valerio

“Bárbarazo… ¿tú no te piensas afeitar?”
 I heard him say to you
 y yo respondí,

“Mi hermano, no le hagas caso
 y ojalá…”
 Ojalá when you’re grooming
 that dark oak rugged beard,
 as the Moroccan argan oil
 tames the frizz of your roots,
 ojalá you notice the resemblance between you
 and our Arabic brotherhood…
 your moro-eating self may not recognize
 what is in plain view
 the Moros y Cristianos that are mixed
 in your blood’s truth
 though over a millennium ago
 the conquest is still seen
 in your hair as its growth
 clings to your face
 marking you different than most
 a beard strategically shaven
 to carve out your mouth
 or shaped so that it is sprouting towards your cheeks
 leading me to see
 the nuez moscada colored windows of your soul
 it is the part of our ancestry
 that is hidden by some females
 bleaching and yellowing their hair
 as if blonde is what our European roots produced
 it is the part of our Spanish heritage we don’t declare
 it is the part of our identity
 that as Dominicans we cannot hide behind our ears
 it is a part of our culture spoken in our soul when we hear:
 ojalá, ojalá, oh Allah…
 it is on our face, our eyes
 and our ways of saying ‘God, I wish’
 so go ahead let this beard
 remind your friend
 que Dios te dio barba porque tienes quija’…
 ojalá,
 ojalá,
 ojalá que en este país,
 con todo el terrorismo
 que está pasando que no te juzguen
 por ser auténticamente tú,
 dominicano y nada más.

Copyright © 2015 Sydney Valerio.
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Sydney Valerio, is a Latina from the Bronx of Dominican heritage, enjoys writing about the socio-cultural aspects of life that shape our perspective. She is an educator by trade and a New Yorker by birthright. Her poetry writing journey began as part of the Sunday Writing Circle, a workshop that is part of the Full Circle Ensemble. She hopes one day to publish her collection of writings so that they can be catalogued in the library located in her childhood neighborhood of Kingsbridge Road and University Avenue in the Bronx, N.Y.

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