Elsy Rosario is a 2nd-year student majoring in Human Services. “A Tiny Space” was written when I was in a place of darkness. My mind was so stuck on the memory of my true home, Dominican Republic, where I can be free, and happy. These memories came to me at the beginning of confinement due to COVID-19. I was craving to go out and live normally again, but that was impossible and still is. I chose to express what I was thinking and feeling in this poem.”
A Tiny Space
By: Elsy Rosario
Day to day,
Hour by hour,
I find myself confined,
Far from exploring, from having fun
Far from nature, far from what I find to be my home,
Far from the country that I adore the most,
I find myself thinking very much about times where I could feel the sun on my skin and feel the wind on my face as I closed my eyes, listening to the waves of memories that stay in the happy summer days.
Escaping from reality and this small space I live in, to more happy times where space was not even crossing through my mind,
I felt free and happy, smiling and dreaming under the starry skies that appeared in the window of my own bedroom, that now is just a memory.
Now I lay in the top of a bunk bed, looking up and staring at a plain white ceiling, wanting to feel free again.
A small bathroom, a shared bedroom, a little kitchen, and a living room. Altogether, the places that before I did not want to stay in for long, but now it feels like it is my fate to do so.
I find myself in a monotonous routine,
Now my phone is not so fun, now what I want is face-to-face talks with the ones I love, being in the country that I adore, food that fills my soul…
I feel stuck in this tiny space, like a doll in its box,
Like a butterfly in a cage.
For the most part, I feel safe in these walls, but my mind tells me otherwise.
Stressful, restraining, quiet, judgmental
Those are words that describe the space where I find myself in.
I feel like this is not my home, like I am living in a space where I do not belong,
Home is where I laugh, where I am surrounded by people that give me mental peace and where I feel loved, where I can dance freely, where I can cook my favorite meals, where I can wear whatever I want without being judged. Home is where I feel comfortable doing what I want when I want.
A home is a special place, that now feels like just a perfect memory.
