By Rodrigo Toscano
O Monterrey
Monterrey, Nuevo León
stirring in our dreams
You sprawled out before us
<that’s the waking metaphor>
Newest causeway inbound
gleaming ivory concrete
six ample lanes
flecked with quartzite
Buoyantly lavished your riches
<the metaphor picks up speed>
so that we could feel
not just see—your machinery
automation’s meta-vistas
desire squirreling with function
First, flat streets, then parades
pink wigs come after water flow
O Monterrey, such swash
powering up bardic bots
fiction—for the fiction-proof
new percussive accent’s bite
It shook us—cyberly
your shimmy up to us
summoning emerald canals
performance in piston plants
lyrics landing on neoprene
rooftop dancing night shifters
10th floor exhibitionist
chilly mountain sweeping air
You <the metaphor settling in>
caked on the coquetry
boulevard luminous picnics
cypresses’ soft sway
Helicopters hovered the Plaza
strafed narcos, washed away
Aqueducts funneling spring rain
cumuli milked to the max
accordion techno blasting
5:00 a.m.—five-line lyric
recumbent sun splashing
spliced into the ruckus
amid rising nouns and verbs
sidewalk adjectives 10 pesos
Wide brimmed black hat
we tip your saucy way
Ta-ra-ta-toom Ta-ra-ta-toom
pops the accent—régio
Ka-pow pow pow
poetipoids poised in power
How harness the output, Monterrey
whatchu need—from NOLA?*
_______________________
* “New Orleans, Louisiana.”
Rodrigo Toscano is a poet living in New Orleans. He is the author of eleven books of poetry. His latest books are The Cut Point (Counterpath, 2023), The Charm & The Dread (Fence, 2022). Forthcoming is WHITMAN. CANNONBALL. PUEBLA (Omnidawn, 2025). His other books include, In Range, Explosion Rocks Springfield, Deck of Deeds, Collapsible Poetics Theater, To Leveling Swerve, Platform, Partisans, and The Disparities. His poetry has appeared in over 20 anthologies, including, Best American Poetry (2023, 2004), and Best American Experimental Poetry (BAX) His Collapsible Poetics Theater was a National Poetry Series selection. His poetry has appeared in the Boston Review, Poetry Magazine, The Bennington Review, The Kenyon Review, The Harvard Advocate, Georgia Review, Yale Review, Conduit, and Fence.