Blueprints

I sit here looking at how the past repeats itself
with memories printed on the walls like a blueprint.
Each wall of each room has memories of happiness and sadness.
If only I could have the memory. Instead, I live it over and over.
When I distract myself and look away and look back,
there’s another image of another memory.
I want to erase, to make new ones, but
I can’t run away because it’s my home.

Wanda RodriguezWanda Rodriguez was born in Puerto Rico in 1966 and came to New York when she was seven years old. She is a single military mom of her two children, who are now serving in the military. Wanda Rodriguez is a breast cancer survivor and lives with multiple sclerosis. Her poetry was also published in LR20. She dreams of returning to school to get her high school diploma and traveling the world. Currently, she studies at the New Lots Adult Learning Center with her teacher Ayana Maurice. The site adviser is Cas Mulholland.