From “CANTARES”

By Edgar Garcia

xxxi

I’ll say it first:

These songs are worth

A flower in the purse,

Averse

To heaven’s universe—

Made for the earth

From its grim corse

And, of course, adorned

With what is interspersed:

Desire, hurt,

Endorsement, curse.

I’ll say it first:

I’m poor as a horse

w/

A flower in its purse.

And where are you?

You are entertained

By the bargain—

half-drunk self-disdain

liquid like paint

spilling into the margin:

a Barnett Newman,

Francis Bacon,

Or Elaine de Kooning

Of earthly ensign—

I, Totoquihuatzli,

Maligned.

I’ll say it first:

I’m poor as a flower

Intermittently

Consented sight of itself.

Notes:

This poem is part of the portfolio “The Chorus These Poets Create: Twenty Years of Letras Latinas.” You can read the rest of the portfolio in the December 2024 issue.

Source: Poetry (December 2024)