Attention Chicagoans!
Next week, the Poetry Foundation will host two gifted Latino poets at its HQ in Chicago for a reading, book signing, and reception: Dan Vera — author of Speaking Wiri Wiri, which won the inaugural Letras Latinas/Red Hen Press prize — and Orlando Ricardo Menes, who judged the contest and whose newest collection, Fetish, won last year's Prairie Schooner Book Prize.
Poetry Off the Shelf: Orlando Ricardo Menes & Dan Vera
Thursday, Oct 24, 7:00PM
Poetry Foundation
61 West Superior Street
Free admission
And here's a poem from Vera's winning collection. Next week, before the reading, we'll offer one from Menes' book as well.
My Double
I tease you about the dog's affections.
You have his eye when you're in the room
and when you walk away his ears keep pace
in case his feet must follow.
He wants for you so dearly when you've departed.
I tell you, What am I, chopped liver?
But you are his beef bourguignon.
You are the steak tartare of his every dream.
I play green with envy
but the truth is, he is my clearest mirror.
If I lived in the lovetime of a dog
and thought that every time you left
you might not make it back
wouldn't I climb the chair near the window?
wouldn't I pace the floors in deep distress?
—from Speaking Wiri Wiri (Red Hen Press, 2013), by Dan Vera
— Learn more about the Letras Latinas/Red Hen Press Poetry Prize here.
— Visit the Letras Latinas blog here.
–et