Poetry

  • Earthen Desires

    by Max Early

     

    A lint covered clay vessel
    hides inside the China cabinet
    anxious for her slipware.

    Potter’s hands lift her out.
    His breath, a rush of wind,
    frees her from dust and inertia.

    Warm …

  • Tettsted

    by Kenzie Allen

    the absence of a void,         a place               where crowding happens, a forest
    where there is no space for light                   between
    so many leaves – a town …

  • ahorrar

    by Fátima Vélez, translated by Camilo Roldán

    pan nuestro
    acera nuestra
    no debe
    desperdiciar dinero
    no debe
    enamorarse
    no debe
    decir de más

    y la mamá
            su tragedia de inmigrante ilegal en Arizona
    y …

  • de Diosestiércol

    by John Galindo, translated by Camilo Roldán

     

    Un carpintero egipcio talló un pequeño escarabajo en un pedazo de madera y le dio a la humanidad el primer egipcio que talló un pequeño escarabajo en un pedazo de …

  • Enfermas de siglo

    by Daniela Prado, translated by Camilo Roldán

     

    Estábamos desesperadas y tristes
    enfermas de siglo
    Hablo de la juventud como de caballos sordos
    como de cielos estallados

    La carne aún es noble
    y estamos servidas al borde de la …

  • Poemas de Juventud acerca del posconflicto. Rosita

    by Sergio Muñoz, translated by Camilo Roldán

     

    De todos modos, las bombas caerán un día en la ciudad

    no tendremos nada que envidiar a los campesinos macheteados unos añitos antes

    bajaremos al subsuelo

    propiedad del Estado

    a buscar refugio

     

    ya estaremos entrenados …

  • My Grandmother’s House

    Congratulations to Deborah J. Hunter, the 2022 Zócalo Public Square Poetry Prize Runner-Up for “My Grandmother's House"

    by Deborah J. Hunter

    My grandmother’s house was made of
    strong, black coffee cooked in white enamel
    on gas burners lit with sturdy kitchen matches
    of some unnamed wood with magical sulfur heads
    that …

  • del poema épico La algarabía/The algarabía

    by Raquel Salas Rivera

    En el centro del ring gira un círculo más pequeño,
    las llantas de un carro que corre solo.
    Metemos el mundo en las peleas más sencillas,
    invocadas sin matices.

    Es increíble …

  • How You Livin?

    by Cynthia Manick

     

    like the air ain’t filled with
    coarse windchimes
    sirens loud as a jet in flight

    the quick jabs
    of a couple arguing about cheese
    and face masks
    and children at borders

  • What the Fingers Do

    by J. Estanislao Lopez

     

    My daughter learned to point
    in a cemetery.
    There were many deaths that year.

    The priests’ black shirts grew discolored from sweat.
    Florists did well.
    Pillowy, white fabric lined the open …

  • for a jakarta microbiome

    by Khairani Barokka

     

     

    because do calls this house an ecosystem

    where straddling folioles tangle mighty-fisted

    along a wire canopy he strung

    above the brick-and-pot garden, and city fox

    coming like a client for bananas they feed it …

  • and Sundays.

    by Crystal Tettey

    Sundays are for the depressed
    half-naked
    dancing in alleys
    of fiction
    of fructose

    Sundays are for feeling small
    submerged in our dreams

    misty eyes
    and
    mild madness

    green drapes
    and
    country music

    Sundays are …