Hello everyone,
I apologize for my lengthy absence. Between travel, teaching, and writing, I haven’t been able to post here. I am sharing a brand new poem draft with you as an offering.
BUT First! I’m teaching two workshops beginning next week.
One workshop series is on Tuesday September 30th and October 7th from 7-9pm EST. The other workshop series is on Thursday October 2nd and October 9th from 6-8pm PST. Each workshop series will feature the same prompts, so please sign up either for the Tuesday series or the Thursday series. The cost is $100 total.
Here are the flyers:
To sign up, please email nolovewithoutteeth AT gmail DOT com.
Here is a brand new poem draft for you to enjoy. I wrote this yesterday.
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published
against citizenship
my parents crossed the northern border & gave up their state.
which northern border you ask? it doesn’t matter. every border
is the same border. stateless, we. lived between bricks. between, we.
grew every green you can imagine. cilantro & jalapeños, we. offered
to the state. which state you ask? it doesn’t matter. every state is
the same state. the state rejected our greens. wrong, we.
grew taller. grew wronger. what the state rejected, we. turned
into stew. what the state threw away, we. turned into tripas.
even my dad smiled with a mouthful of pickled pig feet. between
addresses. between social security numbers. in a shark’s mouth, we.
grew strong picking leftovers from its teeth. were you scared you ask?
terrified, we. carried rosaries. gathered & blew away every dandelion
on our block. held our hugs longer & laughed too loud. report cards &
tax receipts, we. offered to the state. dollars & dolores, we. offered
to the state. wrong & wrong & wrong & wrong, we. invented a life.
get this. not citizens & not undocumented, we. rejects of the state,
we. chose we. tripas people, we. in between people, we. reject the state.
This is what I wrote to my friend Tess as context for the poem:
“Yeah this is a new poem. I was thinking about how pathways to citizenship are not enough and what does it mean when your tax dollars as a citizen are used to terrorize people around the world and not to provide services in your community and then I thought about how all citizenship is exclusionary and I started writing this”
Let me know what you think, and I hope to see many of you in workshop!
with hope,
José
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