A border, like race, is a cruel fiction
Maintained by constant policing, violence
Always threatening a new map. It takes
Time, lots of people’s time, to organize
The world this way. & violence. It takes more
Violence. Violence no one can confuse for
Anything but violence. So much violence
Changes relationships, births a people
They can reason with. These people are not
Us. They underestimate the violence.
It’s been awhile. We are who we are
To them, even when we don’t know who we
Are to each other & culture is a
Record of us figuring that out.
Poems & Texts
The Joykeeper of Everything
Ali Liebegott
Mercurial Edifice
Ariana Reines
Yaqut al-Hamawi on al-Muhassin ibn Kawjak
Translated by David Larsen
from I HAVE NEVER BEEN ABLE TO SING
Alexis Almeida
from "Translating Poetry, Translating Blackness"
John Keene
(Archive)
"Sunday Evening"
Jerika Marchan
XXXO FM
Joshua Escobar aka DJ Ashtrae
Mammalian Egg
Elvia Wilk
from The Prospect
Marcella Durand
(Archive)
Kitchen Sink
Anne Tardos
from “Brazilian Is Not A Race”
Wendy Trevino
(Archive)