By Our Side

Waiting by the shore
you will always be, with your chair
and your sassy smile, in the sand
of your beach. You made it ours
sliding your laughter between summer days, triumphant
over strolls and infinite greetings,
my first conversations tangled
in the colors of your words.

Climbing midday, your humor pushing my hunger uphill,
houses that go like memories, but your tanned face elongating
my days from the garden next door,
solving the enigma of childhood, demonstrating with tender questions
how big my family was:

I had you as a grandmother, when you weren't,
and when everyone deemed me princess, for you: your reiniña;
I knew from you, the gift of sisterhood, filled with argued recipes,
and a wall that didn't separate anything: not the flowers, not the sunsets,
together you were the house from below, the angel that accompanies me;
now you are more, taking care to not leave us alone, settling in your place:
I will always see you, in each neighboring home,
waiting by the shore, laughing you wisdom.