Angel Dominguez
Colonial Dystrophy Studies #1
They leveraged a dictionary against me
brown boy, speak euro-syllables till you lose home
no pan dulce in Merriam Webster’s y no pienses
con esos palabras si qieres subrevir whiteness
alone with a pile of years steeped in poison
They piled Europe upon me
brown boy, absorb other continents until you forget
Here’s a mask for morning; here’s a mask for night
here’s a tongue for mourning; here’s a tongue, here’s a tongue
They ran a nostalgia gambit
put touch to these white walls of arrogance
diction rather perilous, let us ravage your before
until you’re equipped to pick apart
your familial positioning within a larger suffering
January Prayer (Velocity Echoes)
After an adolescence spent punching holes into various reality-fabrics | a manic habit of spiraling panic subsides | leaving behind a time-snake worthy of ouroboros | the way I kept catching circles | in truth the cycle was a decade | no barricade big enough to hide all scars | it was scabs off for the prize fight of a surprise life living after 25 and still counting | blessings seem to be the thing I count (on) most these days | recognizing the tilt of dying stars, I am no longer fooled by strange twinkling | I lost too much time drinking down clocks to run away from anything anymore | for I know the truth of the habit | hatchet down with me and I’ll share some of this blood that’s trickled down through the timelines | see I come from mighty aquifers | we’re holes in the earth together | I see no reason for seasoning the simplicity of truth | for when I am gone | I am with you.
The Rain is Trans. (For Joshua Jennifer Espinoza)
The rain is stronger than I’ll ever be.
If I evaporate out of state and become
atmosphere, maybe I’ll understand
the consistency of an ever mending organ
perhaps I’ll write a sonnet or couplet
that ultimately leaves you with a candle
as the rain breathes into the soil, the sound
creates an exit into the only truth there is:
The Rain, the Moon, the Sky: is Trans.