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Michelle Peñaloza Books

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“The discipline of joy is about survival. You make your own joy- this is the work my mother taught me. Little factory, little mine of reminders- find, make, joy to sustain multiple life- times: the blanket made beautiful from patterned found scraps; the broth of tap water and ginger and bones. What fullness my mother earned and could stuff inside an envelope to send each month back home.”

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Book:Former Possessions of the Spanish Empire
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“The stars above us ask so little, despite our cells, coursing with their dust. To err is constant- someday, all the things we believe will seem ancient. Perhaps, we'll live more times than once. Eventually, we will all flee toward the coastline. The world we ignore most and understand least will call us back to give up our toenails for tails, cover our breasts with starfish and numinous scales. Tell me, how will a cellist sound beneath the sea?”

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Book:Former Possessions of the Spanish Empire
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“These rocks are the church where I knelt in black worsted silk beside my mother. Her shoulders sharp beneath my embrace. My mother: a solid wailing. These rocks are the soil where she kneels before the whorls of roses, kneeing before that box as if it were my father's grave. The closed anemones offer their sticky blossoms as the tide washes toward me. Small bits of the coast meet my skin, scraping my iron onto my knees.”

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Book:Former Possessions of the Spanish Empire
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“There's a saying: those who do not swim deep in the waters from which they came cannot arrive in the oceans they hope to go. My parents began an ocean away and arrived in a land of lakes and snow. I've been back to their waters (is it mine, too?) but, wasn't a good swimmer. Everyone spoke underwater; I could only hold my breath to listen for so long. I did learn the water carries its own song.”

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Book:Former Possessions of the Spanish Empire
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