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—after Bobby Chacon only criminals                     fight for money           are committed                   to this thing to get money                                       to get enough                     to serve seven years                             & I’ve paid                          & I didn’t have the money                            the kids                               for my crimes if I didn’t have                  to serveto get money                     my family                             I’d fight                            for the money                    another ten years                                                                          I paid for my…

after Bobby Chacon that’s all it was                                                            just fighting out of my head                                                            doing whatever it took to reach him                                                            there was no real plan it was whatever it took                                                            fighting him was it all fighting no head                                                            just to reach that’s all no head just doing                                                            my plan fighting to reach out of my head                                                            fighting to reach him doing it…

after Bobby Chacon it’s with youall the timelike a wifeit will knowif you don’ttreat it rightbut if youtreat it rightit can be goodlike a wifeit’s with youall the timeyou treather rightyou knowif you don’ttreat her righta wife can’tbe goodall the timelike fightinglike herlike a wifethe timeyou don’ttreat her rightcan be allthe timea wife canbe goodif…

The self I am today.Involves me.As a lake. Involves.Its cattails.It bears me.Tolerates.My cotton. I would prefer.Not. To be outlived.By anyone. I reserve the right.To refuse. Enchantment. The fables I tell.Always end. Wrong.The good archer.Dead.By a stream. By a stream.The villains.Counting.Their gold. I am so vulnerable.To visionaries.And absolute.Certainty. Tell me how to live.And I will live…

Here is one:            Try to be more than merely good  Here is another:           تلاش ناکافی است Of the others, I know mostlycuisine—soufflé, berbere, tamale. □                               It’s delicious,                              being so governed                               by the primacy                              of my tongue.  □                               Snips                                                  and snails. □                There was an empty jar of olive oil               labeled پول برای پسران فقیر We filled it up with…

language is a moving belt words slide along and yougrab what you need sometimes you miss please andsettle for now sometimes you need both fog andsteam every you can be plural the language affordsus this it’s easy to mistake intensity for intimacyonce I read a story that was all silence I wanted tocover my mouth…

puñal, adj. desus. I hang at the back of the school ground, my fingersHooked to the chain-link facing the street, tips white With my body’s weight. The oak tree behind me bendsDown farther each day I visit to smear My mind on its bark. Armando walksBy the basketball field, spots me. He’s surrounded By boys….

distracted by a delicatenessi don’t summer with enoughthe wood goes unsplitand blankets are added to the bedmy hands roughened not unlike the sun-cut skin of eva in august, dirt freckledknees and a cobweb of fear about harvestspun in the windowunder the frame of last winter’s regretshe is canning all the earth could bearno madonna has…