Padre Nuestro (Our Father)
- Aug 21, 2025
- 1 min read
by Yon Yonni
Mi madre said, “Ponte a rezar.” (Go pray)
She’s taught me just about every prayer.
She said, “Antes de que te vayas a dormir, (Before you go to sleep, pray)
Ponte a rezar.”
And I do. Every night before bed
I pray.
She doesn’t tell me to pray anymore,
And I don’t really think she can.
She’s spent the last weeks in the living room,
on her knees with a rosary in hand,
crying and begging god for help.
I leave her be, looking out the window,
Waiting for my dad to pull up in his camioneta de trabajar.
(work truck with buckets of paint and tools to renovate houses)
Mi tía says he’s not coming home, I heard her talking about immigración (the ICE trucks that
park at the corner of my neighborhood and outside convenience stores)
And whispers to herself words my mom would ground me for saying.
My tía does not tell me to pray, she says “cuidate mijo, (be careful son)
if you come home and no one’s here call me.”
She thinks
whoever arrested my dad will come to get us next.
We lock the doors every night, and right before bed
I think about my dad
Y me pongo a rezar. (I begin to pray.)
