SOLOS
a Rigoberto González)
Our rough
topics?
Time’s bluff.
Viertes
flemas.
Suertes.
Raw pics.
Burnt sky
tropics.
Quemas
cielos.
¿Temas?
We’ll cry
or wish
to die.
Duelos.
Llantos
de los
Our swish
stays fresh.
Fierce (-ish)!
tantos
crueles
cantos.
Sun's mesh
beset
our flesh.
Dueles.
Somos
pieles.
Now let
us kill
(word!) debt
Lomos.
Plexos.
Homos…
until
we're worth
the nil
Nexos
sin
sexos.
of earth
we claim
at birth.
Ruin
nuestro
fin.
Our name?
Bone mound
that came
Diestro
beso.
Estro.
around
enough
to sound.
Hueso.
Muertes.
Eso.
Urayoán Noel (San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1976) is the author of seven books of poetry, including Transversal (University of Arizona Press, 2021) –a New York Public Library Book of the Year–, and Boringkén (Ediciones Callejón, 2008) –an El Nuevo Día Book of the Year–. Other works include the critical study In Visible Movement: Nuyorican Poetry from the Sixties to Slam (University of Iowa Press, 2014), winner of the LASA Latino Studies Book Award and an MLA Honorable Mention, and the performance text EnUncIAdOr (Editora Educación Emergente, 2014). A finalist for the National Translation Award, Noel has translated Nicole Cecilia Delgado’s islas adyacentes / adjacent islands (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2022) and Wingston González’s No Budu Please (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2018), among other works of Latin American poetry. Originally from Río Piedras, Puerto Rico, Urayoán Noel lives in the Bronx and teaches literary and cultural studies, translation, performance, and creative writing in English and Spanish at New York University, and also serves on the board of the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center.