Back to Issue Forty-Seven

interim

BY CINTIA SANTANA

 

inter himthoughthis is not
the enda holding spacethe interim
uterinethe inter-uterthe inneruterus
the usinin uteroin
interimthe opencavityits waters
the swimin darknessopen
waterdarknessthe reachtoward
shore towardstream bankthe moment
thiswants towhen Iturn
to himI turn to him[he enters]

 

multitudes

BY CINTIA SANTANA

 

i.

I
am not yo
nor am I
you.
you are not
yo
yet
you
contain yo

 

ii.

I am not
only yo
nor are
you you
only.
yo
breathes
in you
beside u
despite
the distance

 

iii.

yo and u
become you
become
selvedge,
something
third.
so many yo’s
so many
you’s
and u‘s.
us

 

iv.

you say
you
are not yo,
only you.
yo, too
says
yo am
not you
only yo.
yet
anyone
can see,
you
inhale yo
yo
exhale you

Cintia Santana is a poet and interdisciplinary artist. She teaches fiction and poetry workshops in Spanish, as well as literary translation courses at Stanford University. Her work has appeared in the 2023 Best of the Net anthology, Best New Poets 2016, Best New Poets 2020, Beloit Poetry Journal, Guernica, The Iowa Review, Kenyon Review, Pleiades, Poetry Northwest, The Threepenny Review, West Branch, and other journals. Santana is the recipient of fellowships from CantoMundo and the Djerassi Resident Artists Program. Her first poetry collection, The Disordered Alphabet, was released in September by Four Way Books. Learn more at cintiasantana.com.

Next (Ambriel Floyd Bostic) >

< Previous (Ash Anderson)