queer liberation is in this skin/despite you all

Read this in Spanish

queer liberation is in this skin
it paints our nails
thickets, multicolored farms
roots that engrave the air

it takes up blues, violets, roses
daily filters
glitter is earth

we leave our sunflower DNA
planted in each post
we visualize our affect
no one does it better than nosotres
nosotras, ellas, elles, us, brujes,
enby witches of the daily crop

we root pleasures
where others, death

we burn crucifixes
with each exhalation

our wind hits us suddenly
from within
we declare ourselves farms
pink, turquoise, oranges
traveling the universe
however we please
because we have the power

our stems
give future meaning
to this present
that murmurs in our ears
not heaven, nor hell;
earth


because we have the power
because we have the power
because we have the power
because we have the power
because we have the power
because we have the power
because we have the power

our jayaera switches off churches
incinerates violences
we liberate inner walls
knowing that happiness will
light every day
that we will remember ourselves
as our own
trans, pates, negres
queers, black
free

it makes them uncomfortable
and we smear more glitter
on our bodies

they offer us grays
and we vomit shimmer

they ask us for silence
and violet butterflies
flutter and wheel spirals
vociferating freedom songs

this month and each morning
and wound and sore
water scar

we will dream once more
despite you all
we are

a fire tuber
that glitters


Alejandra Rosa is a nonbinary afroqueer writer, performer and mover. Child of a baker, and grandchild of Doña Sarah, their work has been published in the New York Times, Time Magazine, 80grados, and revista étnica, as well as in the anthologies Sanaré (Editorial Étnica, 2022) and Ese lugar violento que llamamos normalidad (La Impresora, 2022). Winner of the Gabriel García Márquez Award for Cultural Journalism in 2019 and 2020. Author of Levadura (La Secta de los Perros, 2022). Member since 2022 of the antiracist dance-theater group Danza Orgánica. Simultaneously, they are pursuing a doctorate in Afro-Performance y Literature at Harvard University. // Alejandra Rosa es escritore, performere y movedore afrocuir no binarie. Hije de un panadero, y niete de doña Sarah, su trabajo ha sido publicado en el New York Times, Time Magazine, 80grados, revista étnica, así como en las antologías Sanaré (Editorial Étnica, 2022) y Ese lugar violento que llamamos normalidad (La Impresora, 2022). Ganadore de Beca Gabriel García Márquez de Periodismo Cultural 2019 & 2020. Autore de Levadura (La Secta de los Perros, 2022). Desde el 2022, forma parte de la compañía de danza-teatro antirracista Danza Orgánica. Simultáneamente, estudia un doctorado en Afro-Performance y Literatura en Harvard University.