Aracelis Girmay reads “[When I come home they rush to me, the flies]” from 𝙂𝙧𝙚𝙚𝙣 𝙤𝙛 𝘼𝙡𝙡 𝙃𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙨

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00]Hi, my name is Aracelis Carmona, and I am reading from my book Green of All Heads. This poem has no title. It just begins.

[00:00:10]When I come home, they rush to me, the flies, and would take me they would take me in their small arms if I were smaller. So, fly this way, that way, enjoy. They welcome me.

[00:00:23]They kiss my face. One, two, they say, "Come in, come in. Sit at this table.

[00:00:28]Sit."

[00:00:30]They hold one hand inside the other hand and say, "Eat."

[00:00:34]They share the food. "Sit close to me.

[00:00:37]Sit."

[00:00:38]As I chew, they touch my hair. They touch their hands to my crumbs, joining me.

[00:00:43]The rim of my cup on which they perch, the milky lake above which they ask for a story. "How does it begin?" "Before I was a child." And so on.

[00:00:57]My story goes on too long.

[00:00:59]I only want to look into their faces.

[00:01:02]The old one sits still. I sit with it.

[00:01:05]But the others busy themselves now with work. And after the hour, which may be to them is a week, a month, I sleep in the room between the open window and the kitchen, dreaming though I were the Sierra, though I were their long-lost sister. They understand that when I wake, I will have to go.

[00:01:24]One helps me with my coat. Another rides my shoulder to the train. "Come with me.

[00:01:30]Come," I say. "No, no," it says, and waits with me there, the rest whistling, touching my hair, though maybe these are its last seconds on earth in the light, in the air. Is this love? Though it is little, my errand, and for so little I left my house again.