Dear Brazil,
this way is an itch boundaries blend: jeitinho rules rarely rule waiting is a waste of time when waiting is the way to lose
the Copy Boy says he didn’t lose my copy, his answer an itch when students are waiting to take the exam their way: jeitinho grading answers is a waste of ink because paying the Copy Boy is the rule
at the grocery store, the rule is to push, shove, or lose lining up, turns, patience is a waste of resources, laws: an annoying itch to be scratched for jeitinho prices rise, real falls, blame it on waiting
Mothers are waiting at the Plaza de Mayo where they rule sunshine, jugglers, mimes, can’t jeitinho buried children they lose again and again enduring Dirty War itch baby names embroidered on white bandanas in waste
more tests, labs, results will waste the diagnosis we’ve been waiting to believe, you say hospitals make you itch as if our vows: the remaining rule between before we knew, after when we lose hope to find a word I didn’t know I needed: jeitinho
in bed, we become jeitinho learn not to waste time, twists, life or lose picnics of olives, red wine, bread crusts while waiting to make new rules that win over wedded itch
Sacred Heart of Jesus
Tarsila knew she couldn’t make art if she stayed married on her father’s farm, deep in Capivari, she was raised by black nannies who spun a haunt of animals in Africa that eat people, especially little girls who make art
When she left Andre, Tarsila tucked daughter Dulce in her pocket promised to protect her from cannibals
Then Tarsila painted the The Negress critics pinned ribbons to her pale skin In Spain and Paris, she served feijoada, doused caipirinha cocktails with cachaça became a modern Brazil, not native native
Coffee gave, coffee stole her family’s fortunate future “I want to be the painter of my country,” Tarsila said decades before Brazil had a single art gallery
Melissa Scholes Young is the author of the award-winning novels Flood and The Hive. She received the Shelf Unbound Best Book Award in 2021 and the Next Generation Indie Book Award in 2023. She’s published two chapbooks, Scrap Metal Baby and Guinea Pig. She serves as Editor of Grace in Darkness, Furious Gravity, Grace in Love, and Grit & Gravity, anthologies by D.C. women writers. Her essays have appeared in the Atlantic, Ms., Washington Post, Poets & Writers, Literary Hub,and Believer Magazine. She’s received fellowships & grants from the Maryland Arts Council, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Carmargo Foundation, Mellon Foundation, Quarry Farm at Center for Mark Twain Studies, and Virginia Center for Creative Arts. A first generation college student from Hannibal, Missouri, she is Professor in theCreative Writing Program at the University of Kentucky.