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​México at Ten Removes
by Ricardo Hernandez


​contains some
excitement some
usage like
 
the series of turns
one might expect
to encounter
on a southern soujurn
 
a turn
on the road
in the waist
of the knuckle
            that dark
            rendezvous
 
is supple
as sweat
on the vendor’s
narrow brow
 
            bright
as condensed
dew on the roadside
begonias
in a town
where the men wear
their sadness like
 
a second-hand shirt
a row of potbellies
            hanging
just below the hem
 
is a switchblade
                                       lobbed
 
over a draw-
bridge railing
            the handle worn down
by touch
 
            as to suggest
a waxen moon
a set of lustrous
            veneers
 
            is ultimately
            free
of appraisal
            of margins
of sequence
 
            I assure you
            your Honor
I was never beautiful
I have always been
            ​myself

Ricardo Hernandez is the son of Mexican immigrants. A recipient of fellowships from Lambda Literary, Poets House, and The Vermont Studio Center, his work has appeared in Witness, Hyperallergic, The Offing, and elsewhere. He holds an MFA from Rutgers-Newark and lives in Jersey City.
Read More...
Over 2,000 Miles from the Border & No Concordance by Ricardo Hernandez
Summer 2019
ISSN 2157-8079
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