410. You Can’t Have It All

Poet Raquel Franco shares a poem from her new collection of poems, I’ll Cry If I Want To which comes out January 21 and is available for pre-order. You can follow Raquel on Instagram at raquelfranco.poet

Transcripts may not appear in their final version and are subject to change.

Raquel Franco:  hi, my name is Raquel Franco and it’s going to be okay. I am a poet and author who writes about life’s rainy days and small joys in order to instill hope. Today I’m going to read a poem from my forthcoming poetry collection. I’ll Cry If I Want To.  This poetry collection is about motherhood, womanhood, marriage, mental health, grief, and more. It is available now for pre order and wherever books are sold and released on January 21st. 

The title of this poem is You Can’t Have It All after Barbara Ross.  

But you can have strawberries, red like rubies, fat enough to take up all the space in your cheek. You can have swing sets waiting for your legs, which grew up way too fast, to pump in and out like a child’s full on joy.  You can have memories of your grandmother’s hands sifting through the cupboards to find you something to eat, even though you said you weren’t hungry,  eager to make sure you were never empty of anything. 

You can have a double rainbow appear on a random day in April and wonder about the hands of God.  You can have summer, the season most likely to keep its word. Keep your skin tender and sweating and craving mama’s cold iced tea to press against your neck.  You can have hope, tie it to your tongue, thread it with the veins of your pumping heart, let it keep you afloat through life’s sticks and stones.

You can’t have it all, but there are many things left for your hands to hold on to.