Thank you, Diana.
Thank you to all the leadership of the Poetry Center,
and the staff, Tyler, Sarah, and Paola,
who've made my visit here so fruitful.
And to the participants in the class yesterday
at the Poetry Center, thank you as well.
It was really a special afternoon for me.
I will be reading from Why The Assembly Disbanded
this evening.
And then I'll be reading from a new manuscript, a new book
that I will be probably completing
by the end of the spring.
And I'm glad that Diana mentioned the--
I think that the true drive of the book
is about this world building.
And the both actual, and surreal border
zones between Mexico, and the United States, and Latin
America.
And it begins maybe with the little terrors
of everyday life, and concludes, perhaps, in the cosmos.
One of the things you may not be able to see right now
is that the book contains a gallery of photographs
by the photographers Connie Samaras,
and by the photographer Rubén Ortiz Torres.
And also a small gallery of photographs
that I selected and assembled from archives, like the Nassau
archive.
The LA Public Library.
The Library of Congress.
In an attempt to create the world building around this that
takes us from the atrocities of daily life, into perhaps,
the possibility for ecstasy and justice as Diana mentioned.
"Two Guardians."
"My words were sent underground to where
the toggle switch detonates.
That was the glare our voices were avoiding.
There was something also broken about the obedience
of this retainer.
The arcades weren't semaphores, just because the arrows leading
there facilitated those of us in line as though reliant
on East or West quadrants.
The Ticketmaster was prone to allied requests
from the travelers, the sliding doors
sounded a fanfare for the common man.
Get faster as thought or mind the gaps.
What I can infer never altogether
will establish a space adequate to the body count.
The platform motivates two guardians
who are instructed in safekeeping
to usher me from harm's way.
But my standpoint so recedes from this tableau as
to acknowledge a footprint perspective.
Translucent envelope inside remainder
by the riptide or such tunnel vision as to warrant arrest.
Why I was sent to the netherworld
inflicted with no wound.
Someone let's fall a pair of zip locks containing the crystal
bliss of this conspiracy.
What I had to say was sent.
I mentioned this, I think already.
Underground switch and toggle intended
to ignite what I never could bring myself to mean.
Where the voices were avoiding me,
hands outstretched at quarter day to hold back the beam.
Was there something broken.
I weather compliant.
I rally."