after Warsan Shire

This is where I want to start-
him: limber
picking himself up off the bedroom floor
his heartbeat: steady
the sensation of nerves in his left arm: a lullaby
the shot glass presses away from his lips
the last of a half-empty bottle of Bacardi 151
sitting by the kitchen table
for the rest of his life-
that’s how we bring Papi back.
I can make his skin supple again,
drain the bilirubin from his eyes,
color his liver a healthy slick of brown,
make his stool bloodless
pull the spiked Coke from the drain, serve it to guests
no vomit speckling the floor like hell’s night sky
Papi will sing décimas on key with Tío Enrique
strumming a sober guitar and maybe I joy-cry
out of love this time, so much love
I can write this, make his whole life reappear. 

I can write this, make his whole life reappear.
Out of love this time, so much love
strumming a sober guitar and maybe I joy-cry
Papi will sing décimas on key with Tío Enrique
no vomit speckling the floor like hell’s night sky
pull the spiked Coke from the drain, serve it to guests
make his stool bloodless
color his liver a healthy slick of brown,
drain the bilirubin from his eyes,
I can make his skin supple again,
that’s how we bring Papi back.
For the rest of his life-
sitting by the kitchen table
the last of a half-empty bottle of Bacardi 151
the shot glass presses away from his lips
the sensation of nerves in his left arm: a lullaby
his heartbeat: steady
picking himself up off the bedroom floor
him: limber
this is where I want to start-

Peggy Robles-Alvarado is a Jerome Hill Foundation Fellow in Literature, a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee, and a 2020 Atticus Review Poetry Contest winner. She is also a BRIO award winner with fellowships from CantoMundo, Desert Nights Rising Stars, The Frost Place, Nalac Leadership Institute, Communitas America, and VONA. She’s a three-time International Latino Book Award winner who authored Conversations With My Skin (2011), and Homage To The Warrior Women (2012). With advanced degrees in education and an MFA in Performance Studies, Peggy uses poetry to create literary events that center intergenerational communal healing, literacy, and equity. Through Robleswrites Productions Inc. she created Lalibreta.online (2021), The Abuela Stories Project (2016), and Mujeres, The Magic, The Movement, and The Muse (2017). Her work has been featured on HBO Habla Women, Lincoln Center, Smithsonian Institute, Pen America, and Pregones Theater. Her poetry appears online in Poets.org, Tribes.org, The Quarry at Split This Rock, The Common, 92Y.org, Centro Voices, and NACLA.org. Peggy has also been published in several anthologies including The Breakbeat Poets Vol. 4: LatiNext (2020), and What Saves Us: Poems of Empathy and Outrage in the Age of Trump (2019). For more please visit Robleswrites.com.

Alina Mnatsakanian is a visual artist who lives and works in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Université de Paris 8, and a master's degree in Visual Arts from California State University, Los Angeles. She has exhibited in the United States, Canada, Europe, Switzerland and Armenia; she has received awards from the Swiss Federal Office of Culture, Swiss Artists in Labs and California Council for the Humanities. She has been artist-in-residence at the The Swiss Artificial Intelligence Lab IDSIA of Lugano, Grand Central Art Center of California and Art and Cultural Studies Laboratory (ACSL) of Yerevan, Armenia. You can find more of her work in her upcoming show with Tufenkian Fine Arts. The group show will feature work from her series “Connecting the dots” and will be on view from May 7 – June 25. You can also find her collected works on her website.