We Are Not From Here

by Jenny Torres Sanchez

All I know is an artist’s heart is the worst kind of thing to have around here. An artist’s heart doesn’t help you survive. It makes you soft, breaks you from the inside out. Little by little. I don’t want to be broken.

We are not those in the distance who have stopped running and have to wait for the next train. We are not those back in our neighborhoods, waking up to another day and another and another of whatever threat has climbed in through our windows, whispered our horrible fate into our ears. We are luchadores. We are fighters. We are those who dare to try against impossible odds.