“For Estefani Lora, Third Grade, Who Made Me a Card” written by Aracelis Girmay
Elephant on an orange line, underneath a yellow circle
meaning sun.
6 green, vertical lines, with color all from the top
meaning flowers.
*
The first time I peel back the 5 squares of Scotch tape,
unfold the crooked-crease fold of art class paper,
I am in my living room.
It is June.
Inside of the card, there is one long word, & then
Estefani’s name:
Loisfoeribari
Estefani Lora
*
Loisfoeribari?
*
Loisfoeribari: The scientific, Latinate way of saying hibiscus.
*
Loisforeribari: A direction, as in: Are you going
North? South? East? West? Loisfoeribari?
*
I try, over & over, to read the word out loud.
Loisfoeribari. LoISFOeribari.
LoiSFOEribari. LoisFOERibARI.
*
What is this word?
I imagine using it in sentences like,
“Man, I have to go back to the house,
I forgot my Loisfoeribari.”
or
“There’s nothing better than rain, hot rain,
open windows with music, & a tall glass
of Loisfoeribari.”
or
“How are we getting to Pittsburgh?
Should we drive or take the Loisfoeribari?”
*
I have lived 4 minutes with this word not knowing
what it means.
*
It is the end of the year. I consider writing my student,
Estefani Lora, a letter that goes:
To The BRILLIANT Estefani Lora!
Hola, querida, I hope that you are well. I’ve just opened the card that you made me, and it is beautiful. I really love the way you filled the sky with birds. I believe that you are chula, chulita, and super fly! Yes, the card is beautiful. I only have one question for you. What does the word ‘Loisfoeribari’ mean?
*
I try the word again.
Loisfoeribari.
Loisfoeribari.
Loisfoeribari.
*
I try the word in Spanish.
Loisfoeribari
Lo-ees-fo-eh-dee-bah-dee
Lo-ees-fo-eh-dee-bah-dee
& then, slowly,
Lo is fo e ri bari
Lo is fo eribari
*
love is for everybody
love is for every every body love
love love everybody love
everybody love love
is love everybody
everybody is love
love love for love
for everybody
for love is everybody
love is forevery
love is forevery body
love love love for body
love body body is love
love is body every body is love
is every love
for every love is love
for love everybody love love
love love for everybody
loveisforeverybody
My AP Literature teacher shared this poem with me, and I neglected to get to it til now. She wrote it down on a neon pink sticky note which I inevitably lost to the great void. However the note reappeared somehow, and although I stared at the words for a good two minutes, I have to admit that I did not know what I was reading. First I thought it was in another language, perhaps multiple poem suggestions in one. I wondered whether my teacher was sending a secret code. Alas the poem was in English and it was singular.
The poem is beautiful and slightly deviant of traditional syntax.
In this poem Aracelis Girmay writes to her a own student, a response to a gift that was given to her from Estefani. Like me, she had trouble deciphering what the words meant, the exchange seems so simple and straight forward in the beginning. Then Girmay interrogates the word, “Loisfoeribari.” She tries saying it out loud and using it in sentences. But nothing adds up, until it comes to her like divine revelation almost, and the word “Loisfoeribari” begins to transcend denotation. The use of phonetics further emphasize the impact words so simple had on Girmay. I think for the writer, the poem was supposed to speak upon the exchange between people, and how often times there is deeper intent then what is initially led on. Estefani probably did not intend to be a philosophic mastermind, but it was the process; the breakdown that Girmay experienced that made the word “Loisfoeribari” so profound. Even when she repeats the the same phrase, the notion behind it is ineffable.
It was difficult for me to analyze, but easy for me to feel, to feel the feeling of love and the revelations of what love had to offer. very meta
thank you Ms. T.