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• Post #2125219

  From “We Live We Live” by Brandy Nalani McDougall From "We Live We Live"for Palestinian poet Reefat Alareer, with lines from his poemsby Brandy Nālani McDougall This morning after Israel's birds of deathscreeched down toward you my children woke up on their own in Honolulu though it was still dark their breath like soil there voices like soil their kisses like soil blinking when touched by rain… http://chapincityblues.com/2026/04/12/from-we-live-we-live-by-brandy-nala...

• Post #2125215

  From “New American” by Huascar Meina From "New American" by Huascar MedinaI am not your invadernot an animalnor criminalI am a just personjust strivingin a New America During the 2024 presidential campaign trail, Donald Trump accused immigrants of eating cats and dogs. Dehumanizing immigrants, even those with legal documentation, is Trump's bread and butter. For someone whose followers say doesn't have a racist bone in his body, the orange Hitler does say a lot...

• Post #2125213

  From “Gesture with Both Hands Tied” by Marcelo Hernandez Castillo From "Gesture with Both Hands Tied"by Marcelo Hernandez CastilloI'm going to open the borders of my hungerand call it a parade.But I'm lying if I said I was hungry. I read Marcelo Hernandez Castillo's memoir, Children of the Land, earlier this year for class. Even had my professor hadn't told us that Marcelo was a poet, one could have guessed by the way he writes. http://chapinci...

• Post #2125212

  From “For the Rapists Who Called Themselves Feminists” by Blythe Baird From "For the Rapists Who Called Themselves Feminists"by Blythe BairdI have run out of compassion for wolves. I have runout of compassion for anyone who isn't outraged.I ran,& this stubborn body followed.I am the oppositeof forgiveness. I am all rage& shriek & flame. Something I will never do is self-proclaiming a label upon myself. http://chapincityblues.com/2026/04/15/from...

• Post #2125211

  From “Taking Chances and Talking Freedom” by Emmanuel Fru Doh From "Taking Chances and Talking Freedom"by Emmanuel Fru DohYou don't blame people for their painWhen you've never known anything like it,Your table overflowing with the fruits of their labor,Spewing garbage about a people being lazyJust because your spoon at birthWas golden from slave paint,And daily repainted by cheap black laborAs the years roll on to maturity. http://chapincityblues.com/2026/04/...

• Post #2125210

  From “In Arabic, the Word for ‘War’ Is Similar to ‘Love'” by Sara Abou Rashed From "In Arabic, the Word for 'War' Is Similar to 'Love'"by Sara Abou RashedWhen children protested the regimethen died in its prisons, officerssent their fathers notes that read:Come pick up the corpse in exchange for the mother,we'll ensure she bears another one. I loved the juxtaposition Sara Abou Rashed used in "In Arabic, the Word for &amp...

• Post #2125209

  From “Mother” by Dorothea Lasky From "Mother"by Dorothea LaskyI promised my motherI wouldn't touch anythingThat had been long goneInside something turned and wiggledThere's a kind of transformationThat can happen on any day There is a memory from my childhood. When I attended Sam Houston Elementary in Edinburg, TX, a friend of mind had found a dead cat on the other side of the fence. http://chapincityblues.com/2026/04/18/from-mother-by-dorothea-lasky/

• Post #2125208

  From “The Light that Puts an End to Dreams” by Susan Sherman From "The Light that Puts an End to Dreams"A Suite for Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz 1651?-1695by Susan ShermanVIDo you still draw the outline of her form as you liepressed against your pillow as you sit eleganteven in nuns' robes surrounded by thousandsof volumes musical instruments gifts from wealthy patrons Is it her features that haunt you… http://chapincityblues.com/2026/04/19/from-the-light-that-puts-an-en...

• Post #2125207

  From Poems for a Small park by E.D. Blodgett From Poems for a Small Parkby E.D. Blodgettpossibilityrises in the lightas if every dawnturned departure towardendless arrivals whereonly the rising sunholds time in its lightasleep upon our hands I find a lot places relaxing. Parks are one of them. I stroll through them. Snap photos of their animal inhabitants. I don't go outside as much as I should. http://chapincityblues.com/2026/04/20/from-poems-for-a-small-park-by-e-d-blodgett/

• Post #2125206

  From “Para mi family” by Isaac Chavarria From "Para mi family"by Isaac ChavarriaSome parents came poor to Americahungry, rewarded by poxo children ashamed of carpentersunaware of being homes in the Valley I didn't know what the word pocho meant until a few years ago. Rolando told me about it when I inquired about some slang in a play I was reading. Ironic, no? … http://chapincityblues.com/2026/04/21/from-para-mi-family-by-isaac-chavarria/

• Post #2125205

  What's on the agenda today?

• Post #2125204

  From “Party Retreat” by Sheila Maldonado From "Party Retreat"by Sheila MaldonadoOutside, we get bodega supplies, waterbottles, ATM cash. We're a blur of waving—good-byes, cab-hails. We're shoved apart by rude winds. I even poured over the books we have in our collection at work. Sheila Maldonado's One-Bedroom Solo appears to be out of print, so I won't be linking to any Amazon page or anywhere else you can find it. http://chapincityblues.com/20...

• Post #2125203

  From “Geometry” by José Antonio Rodríguez From "Geometry" by José Antonio RodríguezAnd hair decays more slowly than tissue.And the eyelashes must have been the last to go. I am winning no favors not having read a book by a professor whose course I have taken. I didn't meet Rodríguez until I registered for the nonfiction creative writing class, but I knew his poetry. http://chapincityblues.com/2026/04/23/from-geometry-by-jose-antonio-rodriguez/

• Post #2125202

  From “Speaking River” by Rodney Gomez From "Speaking River"by Rodney GomezI used to be you, declaiming use the jowls muscle my brown protest outeasier to expelthan imbibe saying without saying A lot of local poets write about the river. The River. It is a part of our anatomy, especially those of us with familia en la otro lado. The river quenches the thirst of our roots, nourishes it. http://chapincityblues.com/2026/04/24/from-speaking-river-by-rodney-gomez/

• Post #2125201

  From “The Girl Who Opened the Door” by Katherine Hoerth From "The Girl Who Opened the Door"by Katherine Hoerthfor the footprints of years flowing through melike plasma, necessary and warm when freshlypumped from the heart. And so when I openedthe door for you, let your thick bodythrough the threshold of my childhoodhome, questions were never asked. All I knewis that your skin made mine tingle, and my peeking curves… http://chapincityblues.com/2026/04/25/from-the-girl-who-open...

• Post #2125200

  From “Jasmin et Cigarette” by Ava Nathaniel Winter From "Jasmine et Cigarette"by Ava Nathaniel WinterLooking over your shoulder as a scalpelseparates embalmed skin from fascia and nerve,it occurs to me: all we are is smeared out there on the road. I love imagery Ava Nathaniel Winter uses in her poem, the way she juxtaposes flashes of beauty with the grotesque. Even the title, "Jasmine et Cigarette"—although, an actual… http://chapincityblues.com/2026/04/26/f...

• Post #2125199

  From “For Alex Pretti” by Joseph Fasano From "For Alex Pretti"by Joseph Fasanobecause he had learned to say itby standing each night beside the dying;because sometimes he held their hands;because he hade lived only as longas the scent of childhood in an album; I didn't know Alex Pretti's name until he was gunned down by Gestapo-level customs and border protection officers. The fact that a nurse is murdered in public for trying to provide aid to someone who may...

• Post #2125198

  From César L. de León’s Facebook post From His Facebook Postby César L. de LeónCan you feel themHow they rageHow they mournFor a murdered poetThe birds & every thirsty ghost doTheir lament in your throat like a fist After Renée Good was murdered by ICE agents, I learned she was a poet. I don't know why I didn't bring myself to select one of her poems for this year's celebration posts. http://chapincityblues.com/2026/04/28/from-cesar-l-de-leons-facebook-post/

• Post #2125197

  From “I am trying to carve out a world where people are not the sum total of their disaster” by Remica Bingham-Risher From "I am trying to carve out a world where people are not the sum total of their disaster"by Remica Bingham-RisherI will barely touch the surfaceof all it took to keep them here.They taught us to nod to others in the street,to holler love, to knead eggs and butter and flourinto yeast rolls larger than fists, to coax and heed the land. http://chapincityblues....

• Post #2125196

  Remembering Andrea Gibson (1975-2025) Remembering Andrea Gibson1975-2025I know most people try hardto good and find out too latethey should have been softer from "The Year of Not Grudges, or Instead of Writing a Furious Text, I Try a Poem" in You Better Be LightningThe first week you were gone,I kept seeing your hand wave goodbyelike a windshield wiper in a flooding car… http://chapincityblues.com/2026/04/30/remembering-andrea-gibson-1975-2025/