La hija de nadie
Your perfect daughter. Who would she be? Soft and obedient? Mijita. Not a protégé but a devotee. An adorer. A failed endeavor but not for lack of trying. Our bond? A flash in the pan. Our ties of blood, eternal. Mi’ja. Mi hija. Mine to poison. I could thirst like you. Imagine that it was me who was lost. But I am not. Something instead, more than a mirror. A father’s daughter. Una bebé de alguien pero la hija de nadie. You, a familiar stranger. Persona non grata.
TESS PANTOJA PEREZ is a doctoral student in Culture, Literacy, and Language at UTSA.
Cover Art: Madame Seurat, the Artist’s Mother, Georges Seurat, circa 1882-83, Conté crayon on Michallet paper (via the Getty’s Open Image Project).