Status Updates From Nepantla: An Anthology Dedi...

“i can’t stand not to be swallowed whole,
to be sunken into, wrapped in wet walls
& then broken down, & then dissolved
into someone else’s cells. to be craved so hard
i become marrow. stomach lining & tooth.
to be devoured”

Franny Choi, thirst

“these streets weren't paved for tenderness”

Amber Atiya, if my slumlord allowed pets

“When he swings his fist,
duck down and tackle him to
the ground with soft kisses.
When a n*gga calls you a f*ggot,
He’s calling you by his first name. He’s telling you about his-self.
His own fault lines splitting his tongue, toxic and tender.
He’s crying for help from the bottom of the ocean.”

Jay Dodd, When a N*gga Calls You a F*ggot

“how men grow vain and forget to wash the blood from their hands before they hug their daughters”

Julian Randall, Abuela Dice Que Spilled Salt Goes Over the Shoulder

“we had to wash ourselves of home in order to survive”

Julian Randall, Abuela Dice Que Spilled Salt Goes Over the Shoulder

“WHAT IS NARRATIVE IF NOT THE BLOOD / IT CARRIES? WHAT ARE YOU IF NOT THE TRAUMA YOU INHERIT”

George Abraham, Inheritance

“there is a time and place for everything but right now
I find it hard to exist”

- Madiha Khan, Ghazal After Quebec City

“Her mouth is an impossibly pink place, a gaping raw cathedral”

Robin Coste Lewis, The Body in August

“my numbs from the cold & my face &
bury my teeth
without fleeing & the seared my rose in my
& the sap from the tree into the air the stink of it smeared my
& the river came back I could always hold the longest underwater”

- Sarah Maria Medina, Erasure of Girlhood

this poem hurt me to read

“I'm ashamed of how much water
my body holds. I'm more ocean than girl”

Allyson Ang, Wet Dream

“THERE ARE SO MANY SKELETAL REMAINS IN LOCKED
XANGAS LIVEJOURNAL AND MYSPACE
ACCOUNTS. THE FINAL
FRONTIER OF THE OLD TRIBES AND THEOLOGIES”

Juliana Huxtable, Untitled (destroying flesh)

“I'll admit that when that man
became the president, before terrified I felt
relief — finally, here was the bald face of the country & now everyone had to look
at it. Everyone had to see what my loves
for their lives, could not unsee. Cruelty after all is made of distance — sign here & the world ends somewhere else.”

Cameron Awkward-Rich, The Cure For What Ails You

“I imagine
this is how
a baby first
learns reverence, upon finding all the color in the world can fit into
its palm.”

Ariana Brown, Sunday Morning

“The ones by the window, the ones in the middle, apologize for their bladders, ask to be freed from the row-
I'm startled by their perfected womanhood.
That obedience to being small when filled to capacity-“

Arisa White, On the plane, I get so much ass

“I will never buy the white
sob story / because the brown chef don't need sob story /
because what is the diasporic kitchen if not one bellowing sob” - Mace Dent Johnson, Actually, Yes, Everything Is About Race


had to fight the urge to copy paste the entire poem here because it’s all so good

“I stopped playing football because being tackled feels too much like making love” - Danez Smith, On Grace

“It's never too late for someone else to have your happy childhood.” - Chen Chen