c/o Sofia Baluyut
About the Column:
Poems of Our Climate is a weekly poetry column run by Sofia Baluyut ’23. The column was founded by Oliver Egger ’23 as a part of the literary magazine group Route 9. Submit and read past issues of The Lavender at Route9.org. If you are interested in having your poem featured in this column, Poems of Our Climate, please email your work directly to sbaluyut@wesleyan.edu.
thank you, in other words
By Edmund Josef Jurado ’24
and it’s still
my favorite story
to tell about
you the apartment still
had a smell to it
as places do
when they are
not home
yet—
but not like
how your shirts
always smelled
when we hugged
at the airport,
no, that
was home
come home
to us— one night
you made dinner
from what we had
(a head of garlic,
an onion,
a stalk of celery,
carrots and potatoes,
tomato paste)
from what we had
you made
everything
we needed
then for weeks
turned years
we asked you
to make it
again
but it was
different
each time
and
each time
it was still
what we needed
from what we had
you made
laughter
at the dining table
warmth in
the blanket
we shared
a birthday cake
only blown
two hours
after midnight
you made
us pull
our clothes from
a hot heap
on the center
of the bed
every sunday you made
us rush to
the window
every night
we heard you
pull into the lot
and it’s still
my favorite story
to tell about
you: the story of how
you made
from what we had
a home
and i can’t say
we learned
to be
so happy
with so little because
then
we had
so much
About the Poet: Edmund Josef Jurado, better known as Mojo to those close to him, is a Filipino immigrant who has made home in the Bronx, N.Y. He is Jojo and Josef’s son, Bubbi and Yanna’s brother. He will become possibly the only former-aspiring-immigration-lawyer-turned-dietician with degrees in American Studies and African American Studies.