"Mexican American Sonnet" by Iliana Rocha

[View this email on a browser]( [Forward to a friend]( [facebook-icon]( [tumblr-icon]( [twitter-icon]( September 19, 2019 [Mexican American Sonnet]( [Iliana Rocha]( with gratitude to Wanda Coleman & Terrance Hayes We have the same ankles, hips, nipples, knees— our bodies bore the forks/tenedors we use to eat. What do we eat? Darkness from cathedral floors, the heart’s woe in abundance. Please let us go through the world touching what we want, knock things over. Slap & kick & punch until we get something right. ¿Verdad? Isn’t it true, my father always asks. Your father is the ghost of mine & vice versa. & when did our pasts stop recognizing themselves? It was always like us to first person: yo. To disrupt a hurricane’s path with our own inwardness. C’mon huracán, you watery migraine, prove us wrong for once. This sadness lasts/esta tristeza perdura. Say it both ways so language doesn’t bite back, but stays. for Kristen [Like this on Facebook]( [Share via Twitter]( Copyright © 2019 by Iliana Rocha. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on September 19, 2019, by the Academy of American Poets. ["Mexican American Sonnet" by Iliana Rocha.]( About This Poem “This poem would not be possible without the legacy of [Wanda Coleman]( and [Terrance Hayes](, and I wanted to utilize the American Sonnet form in order to resist anti-Mexican and anti-immigrant rhetoric dangerously espoused by the current administration. In Borderlands/La Frontera, Gloria Anzaldúa argues that the ultimate rebellion of Chicanas is through sexuality, so it was important to include specific references to the body and to sexual freedom. American Sonnets have lovely sound and rhythms, and I depended on the switching between languages and rhyme in order to create an irregular kind of music. Ultimately, for the speaker, it is her own internalized self-hatred that does the most damage, and this is the great irony—while individuals with racist and discriminatory views are erroneous in their worry about the negative effects of immigrants on the external world, it is her internal world that is under duress. I have dedicated this poem to mi prima, Kristen.” —Iliana Rocha Iliana Rocha is the author of The Many Deaths of Inocencio Rodriguez, forthcoming from Tupelo Press and winner of the 2019 Berkshire Prize. She is the Graduate Director of Creative Writing at the University of Central Oklahoma and lives in Edmond, Oklahoma. [more-at-poets]( Poetry by Rocha [Karankawa]( (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2015) “American Sonnet (10)” by Wanda Coleman [read-more]( “American Sonnet for My Past and Future Assassin [But there never was a black male hysteria]” by Terrance Hayes [read-more]( “I Walk Into Every Room and Yell Where the Mexicans At” José Olivarez [read-more]( September Guest Editor: Eduardo C. Corral Thanks to [Eduardo C. Corral](, author of Guillotine, forthcoming from Graywolf Press in 2020, who curated Poem-a-Day for this month’s weekdays. Read a [Q&A with Corral]( about his curatorial approach this month and find out more about our [guest editors for the year.]( Your Support Makes Poem-a-Day Possible Poem-a-Day is the only digital series publishing new, previously unpublished work by today’s poets each weekday morning. This free series, which also features a curated selection of classic poems on the weekends, reaches 450,000+ readers daily. [make a one-time donation]( [illustration]( [Small-Blue-RGB-poets.org-Logo]( Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit [Poets.org](. You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click [here](. © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038