Page 5 Self-Assessment: Midterm Reading Response

Identity
     Julio Noboa Polanco

     Let them be as flowers,
     always watered, fed, guarded, admired,
     but harnessed to a pot of dirt.
     I’d rather be a tall, ugly weed,
5   clinging on cliffs, like an eagle
     wind-wavering above high, jagged rocks.
     To have broken through the surface of stone
     to live, to feel exposed to the madness
     of the vast, eternal sky.
10 To be swayed by the breezes of an ancient sea,
     carrying my soul, my seed beyond the mountains of time
     or into the abyss of the bizarre.
     I’d rather be unseen, and if,
     then shunned by everyone
15 than to be a pleasant-smelling flower,
     growing in clusters in the fertile valley
     where they’re praised, handled, and plucked
     by greedy human hands.
     I’d rather smell of musty, green stench
20 than of sweet, fragrant lilac.
     If I could stand alone, strong and free
     I’d rather be a tall, ugly weed.