Ariana Mollers

BIO

Ariana Mollers (she/her/hers) received an M.Ed from the University of Georgia and a BA from Virginia Tech. Her work explores the complexities of white skin mixed with Bolivian blood, the second generation immigrant experience, and gender. She is a poet and writer who works in higher education while currently living in the New England area. 


Ariana can be found on Instagram @wordsinthe_am.  

My spanish is a little rusty

 

I now understand the science of searching

for a word in a language that has never been

mine, the almost alchemy of reaching inside

only to touch rust. Where did they go? 

I knew the words once, I swear, but I only find sentences eaten 

away by neglect. How do I say--

this is different than the dust of time? 

What is the word again--for the pain in pronouncing a

beautiful word that won’t bend? I am trying to conjure

a language that I am scared to hold. 

To rust, to corrode, is a spell made

by three bare elements: iron, water, oxygen. 

A bitten tongue for blood, a drop of sadness,

and an inhale of air I’ve been holding in for years. 

How do I translate--the difference between

forgetting the words and forgetting to speak?

We lock away the heirlooms we don’t want to be

found until the ghosts come to haunt. 

© The Acentos Review 2020