If This Poem & hay viejos que caen

By fernando xáuregui

If This Poem*

if this poem were in Spanish
it wouldn’t have been published here

if this poem were in Triqui
it wouldn’t see the light of day here

if this poem were spoken in Tagalog
it wouldn’t be here for you to read

if this poem weren’t in English
it wouldn’t have been published in the US

a strict English only policy as the backbone
of poetics

this poem’s DNA finds the iamb a lost beat
a slaughtered lamb
a phantom limb
a sharp and consistent limp

] even if its purpose was not to roar
or be hurricane [

this poem may suck but you can read it

the other ones are lost without clout
at the gates of the city
or in swap meets and taquerías
contemplating the difference

between the pupusas de Guatemala
y las de El Salvador

my other poems [some] are much better
than this one [I hope]

but they’re something else
illegible or worse, I guess
as if monolingualism
plain and simple
were the key
hay viejos que caen

hay viejos que caen
del cielo


como cáscaras desgajadas
marchitos de una vez
por todas

caen sentados sobre bancos
o sillas frente a casas

[frente a la nuestra no cayó ninguno]

aún azorados por el desprendimiento
el empujón al abismo

callan y miran con párpados
de rieles

caen con sólo la mirada
y no contestan el adiós

nunca miran muy alto
ni con muchas ansias

y no dejan la mirada
de la tierra

que nos ha de contener
por
demasiado tiempo.


* “If This Poem” was originally published in Fence 40, Winter, 2023. It is republished in Latin@ Literatures with permissions from the author and publisher.


fernando xáuregui. About 8 years ago, a colleague began talking to me about the Middle East. But—perhaps astonished at my political, ethical, and intellectual ineptitude—he was unable to explain to me the reasons the Palestinian cause should be supported or what was even at stake. From what he told me it seemed all that Jews just wanted was a country of their own and that seemed fair to me—a worthy cause even. He told me to look into it for myself. I did. I was surprised by the colossal brutality, extreme violence and daily humiliation that Zionists exercised and have been exercising with impunity on Palestinian men, women and children of all ages from babies to the elderly for almost 80 years. It now seems to me that the so-called Palestinian-Israeli conflict is the crux in the construction of our contemporary world and our perception of it; that our recognition of genocide or its denial is the only piece of biographical information with any claim to relevance.