Joy
I inhale everything through the holes of myself
because I grew where my mother kept her salty tears
and it's lived in my DNA ever since.
My ribcage only wanted air, sometimes sweet showcase
but was not allowed to be expanded into a space of my own design
and instead expounded through chasing dinner table eyes.
I begged for everywhere and golden mercy in strawberry fields
only for it to be granted with resentful love
and for those fields to only make me yearn for her.
This was inspired by the film Everything Everywhere All at Once directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert.
A quote from the film that inspired me: “I have felt everything your daughter has felt and I know the joy and the pain of having you as my mother,” Jobu Tupaki.