Padre's Right
Patricio Ferrari
to suicide
came after
                wards contorted
faces, in stale stench light
trapped pallor

brain upon brain
check, strapped
                leather, locked
in a stupor, shock
therapy, after

purple yellow
bedsores
                burning
insomnia scabs
tended to by saints

of another creed. On the asylum's
fourth floor, a gnawed down pulse
                with voices
ground and grinding. he cleft
the air

looking on, the fire angel
left him broken
                soiled
limbs crossed upon the cold
floor, numb

                 as the scarabs of the garden
hatched night
from the journal SOUTHWEST REVIEW
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Convergence—whether subtle or perceptible—is the essence of change. As linguistic diversity diminishes and cultural homogenization accelerates, we have yet to fully explore how English—the dominant lingua franca for exophonic expression—and Anglophone poetry might be revitalized by embracing not only other Englishes but also the languages and heritages they encompass. “Padre’s Right” emerges from "Mud Songs," volume I of my multilingual "Elsehere" trilogy, currently in progress.
 
Black and white photo of Threa Almontaser
"A Conversation with Threa Almontaser"

"I like chasing my curiosities and strange impulses—celebrating these varied discernments—staying curious, and not letting the content dictate the container. Everything is made from a collage of other stuff. I love poems that reference eight or nine or ten things, while demonstrating how all of them can connect. I ask myself, what exactly do I like from this form of media? What are they doing well? What atom of this craft is specifically sparking my interest, making me want to work on my own art? The only way to be sure your ability matches your taste is to keep feeding your curiosity, to be in constant pursuit of it."

via WORLD LITERATURE TODAY
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What Sparks Poetry: Karen An-hwei Lee on "Dear Millennium, a Jade Rabbit on the Far Side of the Moon”

"About a year or so before the global pandemic of 2020, China landed a rover on the far side of the moon. The rover’s name was 'Jade Rabbit,' a robot that was part of the series of Chang’E missions. This mixture of facts and metaphors inspired me to reflect on our relationships to dead metaphors and their intricate web of mythologies and cultural stories leading to these metaphors—for instance, the moon as green cheese, the man in the moon, the rabbit under a cassia tree in the moon, and the lady who drank the elixir of immortality and floated there."
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