Emiliano Gomez
Three Unrhymed Sonnets
Domestic Terrorist
dump trump responds the neighbor make amer-
tw -ica great again
our way of life
lively debates and brawls
for rights from rights by rights through rights insights
scant few and far between
our dreams give way
to children running snuggling back in bed
blankets with cartoon monkeys rubber duckies
we teddy bears to courage and honor
we cities towns aspiring to towers
or burning ivory towers
saddened scowls
return to sender singing singing sung
child played with food with peas n mashed potatoes
same child in monolithic marches child
who squeals nothing whose boon went boom
boom
boom.
Description Of The Block
lawnmowers camrys peach trees landscaping
projects the secrets that uncle and aunt
are said to know
tw
hispanics
sincere pariahs tribes old high school clicks
“diversity of thought” terranged lawnewb
piel de tortilla
seeking
affirmation
the can i touch your hair white woman who
joined book club to read ibram x kendi
named after saints colonial
western states
the mountainside the valley the seaside
the cottage cabin brick garden and kids
are “with my own two hands”
and life-long friends
who know your braced and clear-faced face who’ve loved
anticipating happiness just you.
A Hyphen-American
used-tin-can clear-taped-on paper reads POOR
the look of words the feel of lines hermana
cómo te sentistes cuando tu
amiga last name gusto pleasure skipped (away)
when middle-school microagression’s mouth
trotting away trotting away tossed you
into the jaws of white america
peru where five foot ten and curly you
learned mantras and relearned your mother tongue
your cultural tongue
missed the eldest’s day
the one by church the one that counts for catholics
denying circumstance despising it
the look of words the feel of lines hermana
your soul rejects the picket fence of white.
—Submitted on 10/31/2020 to the erstwhile What Rough Beast series
Emiliano Gomez is a 2020 graduate of UCLA, where he completed an English Department honors thesis under the direction of Brian Stefans. He was born in rural northern California.
SUBMIT to Transition: Poems in the Afterglow via our SUBMITTABLE site.
If you enjoyed today’s poem and you value Poems in the Afterglow, consider making a donation to Indolent Books, a nonprofit poetry press.
