Self Portrait of the Last Six Years
Rachel Mehl
A loose translation of “Autorretratto A Los Seis Años” by Homero Aridjis
A glass separates the hill of my hands,
a door left open in a living room.
Stairs of rain beat this town.
Words I cannot say in Spanish:
Sparrows, stones, ash, blue sky.
My pencil draws my adjunct teacher
her red dress, her honest shoes.
I learn to read, become my father in Mexico,
the shadows broken over his walls.
Rachel Mehl has published poems in Alaska Quarterly Review, LA Review, Portland Review, Poet Lore, and Willow Springs among others. She has an MFA in poetry from the University of Oregon and lives in Bellingham WA.