Grade 11
PoetryWritingEstando en el balcón
En San Luis entre Moreno y Bolivar
Me sentía tan conectada con algo que recién conocí.
Miraba al paisaje
Los edificios blancos, simples.
Miré las ventanas de los vecinos
Algunos expuestos, la mayoría escondidos detrás de sus persianas.
Si miraba para abajo, se veían los techos de los edificios más bajos
No se podía ver la calle,
Pero se veía Mar del Plata desde nuestro balcón.
Comíamos una picada de quesos y fiambres
que conseguimos en el almacén de la esquina.
Tomábamos
Despacio, poquito a poquito
La comida era tan fresca
Que si me había olvidado que ya no estaba en Estados Unidos,
me acordé cuando mordí esa primera galleta.
Mi mamá me contaba que ella creció en este edificio
En un apartamento que quedaba en este mismo piso.
Y aunque me contaba tanto,
Había bastante silencio.
Se escuchaban algunos pájaros
El ruido de mi copa tocando la mesa, de mis zapatos haciendo contacto con el piso
Pero cuando nosotras no hablabamos,
Realmente había silencio.
Me la imaginaba de chiquita
Seguramente tenía cara de pícara,
Quizás corría por el pasillo.
Imaginaba a mi abuela, a mi abuelo
Imaginaba fotos que me mostraron alguna vez
Con un tono naranja, típica de esa época
Me dio ternura
Así que le agarre la mano a mi mami
Y seguí tomando agua del sifón.
Era el 24 de noviembre del 2022, y el cielo marplatense estaba oscureciendo.
En el cielo, se veían tonos púrpuras, rosas, azules, y amarillos.
Había una brisa suave y una tranquilidad en el aire
Me sentía feliz
Una sensación de paz.
La miré a mi mamá
Con sus ojos brillantes,
Su pelo suave con tonos de gris
Y me enamoré de ese momento.
***
Being on the balcony
On San Luis Street, in between Moreno and Bolivar
I felt so connected to something I had just met.
I looked at the view
The simple, white buildings.
I looked at the neighbors’ windows
Some exposed, the majority hidden behind their blinds.
If I looked down, I could see the roofs of shorter buildings
You couldn’t see the street,
But you could see Mar del Plata from our balcony.
We ate an assortment of cheeses and cold cuts
that we bought at the corner store.
We were drinking
Slowly, bit by bit
The food was so fresh
That if I had forgotten that I was no longer in the United States,
I’d remember once I bit that first cracker.
My mom was telling me that she grew up in this same building
In an apartment on this same floor.
And although she told me so much,
It was very quiet.
You could hear some birds,
The sound of my glass touching the table, of my shoes making contact with the floor
But when we weren’t speaking,
There really was silence.
I was imagining her as a child
She probably had a curious face,
Perhaps she’d run through the hallway.
I was imagining my grandma, my grandpa
I pictured photos they had shown me at some point
With an orangey tone, typical of that era
It gave me warmth
So I held my mother’s hand
And I served myself more club soda.
It was November 24, 2022, and the sky of Mar de Plata was darkening.
In the sky, there were purple, pink, blue, and yellow tones.
There was a soft breeze and a calmness in the air
I felt happy
A sense of peace.
I looked at my mom
With her bright eyes,
Her soft hair with tones of gray
And I fell in love with that moment.
***
This piece was originally published in 826NYC’s The 826NYC Review 2025.
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When Instagram becomes an unsightly battlefield.
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