Poetry By Nicole Henares

John Buie CC



Punk Rock Spikes In The Ashes
​
April 3, 2015 at sunset, 
was a trick question.
The next night at La Lunada, 
the moon turned red --
a full eclipse
beneath an Aries sky,
the sign of fire and reckoning,
where endings ignite
their own beginnings.
The sky itself
was remembering.
And through that remembering,
I remember now.
It burns like a mixtape
of every lost song,
every name I thought I’d forgotten. 
Memory is not a wound,
but a portal --
a way back through time: 
April 22, 1984 Easter Sunday,
Chris Whitmire wore a blue gingham shirt
and was in the ninth grade at Lowell High School
and we were at the Crown Room for brunch
with my grandmother and Mrs. Boucher 
and her grandson and his wife.  
And I realize:
punk rock is never about rage --
it is about resurrection.
About turning silence
into sound,
and memory
into mercy.




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Nicole Henares is a writer and educator whose work explores the intersections of memory, trauma, and resilience. Her writing often delves into the complexities of personal history and the persistent pursuit of truth through poetry.