Nancy A. Ruffin

Nancy A. Ruffin Poems

Nancy A. Ruffin Biography

Nancy Arroyo Ruffin was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1977 to parents of Puerto Rican descent. From a very young age Nancy had a great affinity for books, for reading, and for writing. She was involved in a young writer's club in elementary school and her love for writing continued on into her adult years. Raised on the rough streets of Brooklyn during the 1980s Nancy never allowed her surroundings to interfere with her love of learning. She has used her exeperiences growing up in an inner city to fuel her writing and to give a voice to many young women who have similar experiences. Nancy graduated from Bernard Baruch College where she earned a B.A. in Accounting and an MBA in Healthcare Management. She is currently enrolled in the Master of Fine Arts Program in Creative Writing at Fairleigh Dickinson University and is the Associate Director of Ambulatory Care Operations at Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx which is a part of the New York City Health & Hospitals Corporation. She lives in Bergenfield, New Jersey with her husband. For more info on the author visit www.welcometohartbreak.com)

The Best Poem Of Nancy A. Ruffin

My Grandmother's Hands

My grandmother's hands
have massaged tired limbs
and weary hearts
they have cleaned homes,
swept floors,
toiled grass roots
in cemented lands
laid bricks and mortar
that paved the road to freedom.

My grandmother's hands
have coddled bodega lotto dreams
like her new born child
they are lamb's wool
on the naked skin
of future generations.

My grandmother's hands
have clasped arctic
tenement floors
shielding 5 finger back slaps
that burned souls like hot coals
pink-grey cinders of ash
marked with years of resentment
for the lives they couldn't save.

My grandmother's hands
have molded
boys into men
girls into women
with strength
like old family traditions
overflowing with
unfulfilled promises
that time has carried away
and all that is left
are the years of struggle
permanently engraved on
the palms of
my grandmother's hands.

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