One of my favorite authors. One of my favorite books. The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros. I am hearing the little girl’s voice in my head.
A House of my own.
Not a flat. Not an apartment in back. Not a man’s house. Not a Daddy’s. A house all my own. With my porch and my pillow, my pretty purple petunias. My books and my stories. My two shoes waiting beside the bed. nobody to shake a stick at. nobody’s garbage to pick up after. Only a house as quiet as snow, a space for myself to go, clean as paper before the poem.
19 Chickens and Counting 