Aquí también…

By Robert René Galván

Aquí también… *

The boy sat on the floor
of Garner & Smith Bookstore,
gazed up at the shop’s mascot
which the blind man
stroked in his lap
as he and my father
spoke Spanish in low tones;
two poets met by chance
during the librarian’s
sojourn in Tejas.

Oh, to have brought along
the Kodak Instamatic
to frame the moment
in a white border
for posterity,
but consigned instead 
to wander the labyrinth 
of memory,
Roberto and Jorge
in deep conversation,
my own attention
fixed on the calico cat.

* The first words of Borges’ sonnet about Texas

Robert René Galván, born in San Antonio of Indigenous/Mexican heritage, resides in New York City where he works as a professional musician and poet. His collections of poems are Meteors, published by Lux Nova Press and Undesirable: Race and Remembrance, Somos en Escrito Foundation Press, Standing Stones, Finishing Line Press and The Shadow of Time, Adelaide Books. His poetry has been featured in such publications as The Acentos Review, Adelaide Literary Magazine, Azahares Literary Magazine, Gyroscope, Hawaii Review, Hispanic Culture Review, Latino Book Review, Newtown Review, Panoply, Prachya Review, Sequestrum, Shoreline of Infinity, Somos en Escrito,  Stillwater Review, West Texas Literary Review, and UU World. He is a Shortlist Winner Nominee in the 2018 Adelaide Literary Award for Best Poem. Recently, his poems are featured in Puro ChicanX Writers of the 21st Century (2nd Edition) and in Yellow Medicine Review: A Journal of Indigenous Literature, Art and Thought. His poems have been nominated for Best of Web and the Pushcart Prize. His poem, Awakening, was featured in the author’s voice on NPR as part of National Poetry Month in the Spring of 2021.