DAVID JOEZ VILLAVERDE

Little Kingdoms

Raise your hands to meet the rain if:
       1)   A light hollows the sky
       2)   Clouds blossom on the sea

but even then, this earthly flesh turns to stone.
the dirt & sand & rock shaking with blood.

Metaphor fails me, as it often does.
I look down towards the firmament
and anoint myself with importance

My tomato starters can wait, I think.
Who knows what this dirt will be after this.

In tiny gardens you can still find desire.
And in those gardens: concealed bodies,
limbs that extend with want

My shoulder abducts, a bone rotates,
forgetfulness trowels the soil.

Behind me is a tree I have consecrated
in shadow. Snakes burrow &
disappear. A still life rots, uneaten.

The Things We Did Right (II)

We hunkered down.
We rinsed the rice.
We let the days soften into each other.

We stayed indoors.
We remembered the importance of what we'd forgotten.
We stomached our horror.

We watched from the window.
We attended no funerals.
We let the dead mourn us.

David Joez Villaverde is a Peruvian American interdisciplinary artist and CantoMundo fellow. His poem "La Piedra de los Doce Ángulos" was selected as the winner of the Black Warrior Review 2018 Contest. His poetry has appeared in RHINO, The Indianapolis Review, Frontier Poetry, Yemassee, and elsewhere. He is currently an MFA candidate at the University of Michigan. Find him at schadenfreudeanslip.com