*Glossary is provided below.

CW // Death

Buenos días

You tell me every morning

Without the faintest sound of sueñitis in your voice

“Buenos días, grandma,” I say

Only half-awake from the makeshift bed you created of the couch

Where you keep my sweetest dreams tucked away beneath the cushions

You don’t let me call you “abuela” because you say it makes you sound old
I’m still too young to understand that women like you

Age backwards so that their hearts can always stay young

Buenos días

I cannot enter this apartment if you’re not in it,

If I cannot count on you to wake me from my sleep and bring me into a lazy morning

Of cafecito y panito contigo

Buenos días

Every time I speak in Spanish, it sounds like you

My tongue feels severed

My voice cracks

Buenos días

This language is spoken by millions

But every time I hear it

Speak it

Sing in it

I feel like I am sending

A paper airplane made of words to you

Hoping if you hear me from a distance speaking the language you love most

I could maybe bring you back

Make the distance between us

No more than the length of the stove to the kitchen table

Go against every one of your diseases statistics

And you’ll remember me once more

Bueno días

I used to wish

You’d let me sleep in

Now all I wish is that I could have had

Just another moment with you

To memorize your little voice as it softly sang my name

Or the way your hands flipped through the flyers from El Super

The front door always open

So that you would never miss a chance

To gossip with your friends as they passed by

Remind everyone you took into your heart

That they’d always have a home with you

Buenos días

Can I wake one more time

Back achy

Head groggy

Feet hanging off the couch

Could I remind you “I love you”

One more time?

Hold onto you just long enough

That I’d still feel your embrace

Even after I walk out the door

Buenos días

Here’s another paper airplane

Another letter to the sky

Another day of pleading

For you to please never forget me

For one last chance

To never say goodbye

Glossary from the author:

[Please note asterisked terms are not the proper terminology, rather they are lingo like words my grandma and family use, most specifically as a term of endearment.]

“Buenos Días”- Good morning

*“Sueñitis”- A term for sleepiness

“Abuela”- Grandma

*“Cafecito”- A term for coffee

“Y”- And

*“Panito”- A term for bread

“Contigo”- With you

*“El Super”- A term for supermarket ◆

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