Search
An association of writers working to advance literature, defend free expression, and to foster international literary fellowship.
PEN Features
Features Archive
PEN Podcasts
news
Audio Archive
speak out
PEN Members Online
Links & Resources
spacer
Newsletter

RECENT FEATURES



Home > Herrera

Juan Felipe Herrera: She Wants the Ring Like He Wants the Suit of Scars/But

Juan Felipe Herrera is the recipient of a 2009 PEN/Beyond Margins Award for Half of the World in Light: New and Selected Poems (University of Arizona Press, 2008).


  Selected Poems from
Half of the World in Light


A Certain Man[Let Us Gather in a Flourishing Way]Crescent Moon on a Cat’s CollarShe Wants the Ring Like He Wants the Suit of Scars/But3:45June Journals 6-25-88Follow RóżewiczWater Water Water Wind WaterLet Me Tell You What a Poem Brings

   

LISTEN 


   
She Wants the Ring Like
He Wants the Suit of Scars/But


She wants the ring like he wants the suit of scars/but
                                                                            I
want liquids diamonds from the music of a window when it cracks
cool doors emerald eyes from a fire against ice/everything
screaming torsos petals from an immortal storm
legs of a metallic sea in search of a floor made of fruit
a thousand marias with braids of lightning ruby rifles
                                                                       she wants the ring
like he wants the suit of scars/but
                                                I
want violetrhymes from the salt mine of a cell when it blows
sky calendars the wall cut by wasp suns
                                      (cassock wings of altar boys:let them explode)

she wants the ring like he wants the suit of scars/but
                                                                           the
one thousand Lucios with honeycomb eyebrows topaz bulletstraps?



Copyright © 2008 by Juan Felipe Herrera. All rights reserved.

 


Home | Site Map | Copyright / Privacy Policy | Contact Us © 2004-2012 PEN American Center. All rights reserved.