The Wealth We Surrendered
by
Eneida P. Alcalde
Eneida P. Alcalde (she / her / ella) immigrated to the United States as a child, transplanting her Chilean- Puerto Rican roots into Pennsylvanian soil. A Pushcart Prize-nominated writer, her poetry is grounded in her multicultural background, merging lyrical narrative and personal reflection to explore questions of belonging and displacement, individual and collective memory, historical legacies, social justice, and cultural resilience. A Macondista, Eneida graduated with an MA in Creative Writing & Literature from Harvard University’s Extension School. She draws inspiration for her writing from her migrant family and ancestors, her young daughter, and the places she has called home—from Valparaíso and Cochabamba to Washington, DC and Singapore.
Learn more at www.eneidaescribe.com.
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from The Wealth We Surrendered
Anonymous
You texted feliz cumpleaños, promised from this point I will hear you declaring you love me. Months later this remains your last statement.
Some nights I’m our home on the rock hill overlooking Pacific seas and the wealth we surrendered, back when father and I visited, laughed by the woodfire orange glow luminating stories from darkness, abuela and abuelo and past lives
who brought us here.
Some mornings I’m a lighthouse on the cusp of memory piercing mist before first light, enduring wave after wave in silence, searching old maps, peeling puzzle pieces, tracing pebble paths
leading
to and away what we held dear.
I haven’t heard your voice in two years when I called in the middle of the night and you answered
to hear:
Father died.
I search and I search, I cannot find our home, not a footprint or eco appear.