Mora, Pat. “Words Free As Confetti.” Confetti: Poems for Children. Illustrated by Enrique O. Sanchez. New York: Lee and Low, 1999. (1996)
Come, words, come in your every color.
I’ll toss you in storm or breeze.
I’ll say, say, say you,
Taste you sweet as plump plums,
bitter as old lemons,
I’ll sniff you, words, warm
as almonds or tart as apple-red,
feel you green
and soft as new grass,
lightweight as dandelion plumes,
or thorngray as cactus,
heavy as black cement,
cold blue as icicles,
warm as abuelita’s yellowlap.
I’ll hear you, words, loud as searoar’s
Purple crash, hushed
as gatitos curled in sleep,
as the last goldlullaby.
I’ll see you long and dark as tunnels,
bright as rainbows,
playful as chestnutwind.
I’ll watch you, words, rise and dance and spin.
I’ll say, say, say you
in English,
in Spanish,
I’ll find you.
Hold you.
Toss you.
I’m free too.
I say yo soy libre,
I am free
free, free,
Pat Mora is a writer and cultural preservationist who seeks to document the lives of Mexican Americans and U.S. Latinas and Latinos through varying genres such as children's books, poetry, and nonfiction. A descendant of four grandparents who came to Texas from Mexico during the Mexican Revolution of 1910 and the early twentieth century, Mora's bilingual and bicultural experiences inform her literary contributions. She was born in El Paso, Texas, on January 19, 1942. In her writing, Mora adopts the terrain and life of the Chihuahua desert and recognizes the human and cultural diversity of the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. It's long, i know.
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