San Ysabel Massacre

by Susan Ayres


Pancho,

Yesterday, Tia and I made red tamales
while listening to noticias

about your murdering a train car of gringos
headed to the Cosi mine. They say

you stripped them naked, had them stand
off to the side of the railroad tracks,

shot them in the back of their heads,
left them there for vultures. Padre came

for coffee. The ranchers heard you
warn the miner yanquis not to return. 

One of your wives may slit your throat first,
like Padre’s homily of Judith and Holofernes.

Your wife,
Petra
January 1916


* * * * *

Author's Note: This poem is part of a project about the wives of Mexican Revolution war hero, Pancho Villa. One of the earlier wives he married in Parral was Petra Espinosa. According to historian Haldeen Braddy, Pancho Villa raped Petra, who learned to both fear and desire him. 

Susan Ayres is a poet, lawyer, and translator. Her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and has appeared in a wide variety of literary and scholarly journals including Yale Journal of Law and Feminism, Sycamore Review, Cimarron Review, and Valparaiso Review. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts, and teaches at Texas A&M University Law School. Her chapbook is Walk Like the Bird Flies (FLP 2023). Visit www.psusanayres.com.

My Beast

by Susan Ayres


Pancho,

I hear you have evaded Black Jack. News has reached
us of your New Mexico raid. The people sing a new corrido—

Our Mexico, on February 23^rd
Carranza let Americans cross the border,
10,000 soldiers, 600 airplanes,
looking for Villa, wanting to kill him.

Sometimes I believe you are a beast. 
When I shaved your moon face I thought
the razor could slip, slice the soft hollow

under your chin. Today
I am busying my hands making the flan
and pan dulce you love.

Your wife,
Petra
March 1916


* * * * *

Author's note: This poem is part of a project about the wives of Mexican Revolution war hero, Pancho Villa. One of the earlier wives he married in Parral was Petra Espinosa. According to historian Haldeen Braddy, Pancho Villa raped Petra, who learned to both fear and desire him. 

Susan Ayres is a poet, lawyer, and translator. Her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and has appeared in a wide variety of literary and scholarly journals including Yale Journal of Law and Feminism, Sycamore Review, Cimarron Review, and Valparaiso Review. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts, and teaches at Texas A&M University Law School. Her chapbook is Walk Like the Bird Flies (FLP 2023). Visit www.psusanayres.com.

DISSOLVING INTO THE SILENCE

by Lorraine Caputo

 
Again this morning
I awoke too quickly
 
I tried to gather
the fraying threads
the tenuous chords
of my dreams
 
but already they had
dissolved
into the predawn
silence


* * * * *

Lorraine Caputo is a documentary poet, translator and travel writer. Her works appear in over 400 journals on six continents; and 24 collections of poetry – including In the Jaguar Valley (dancing girl press, 2023) and Santa Marta Ayres (Origami Poems Project, 2024). She also authors travel narratives, articles and guidebooks. Her writing has been honored by the Parliamentary Poet Laureate of Canada (2011), and nominated for the Best of the Net and Pushcart Prize. Caputo has done literary readings from Alaska to the Patagonia. She journeys through Latin America, listening to the voices of the pueblos and Earth.
 

 

IN MY DREAMS I HEAR THE MATINS

by Lorraine Caputo

 
It rings once
            whispering
            in this predawn
            darkness
 
            not wanting
            to awaken
            anyone –
 
            only those
            for whom
            it is tolling
 
 
One clang …
            muffled by
            the night’s
            stillness …
 
Another clang …
            & now only
            the dark
            silence


* * * * *

Lorraine Caputo is a documentary poet, translator and travel writer. Her works appear in over 400 journals on six continents; and 24 collections of poetry – including In the Jaguar Valley (dancing girl press, 2023) and Santa Marta Ayres (Origami Poems Project, 2024). She also authors travel narratives, articles and guidebooks. Her writing has been honored by the Parliamentary Poet Laureate of Canada (2011) and nominated for the Best of the Net and Pushcart Prize. Caputo has done literary readings from Alaska to the Patagonia. She journeys through Latin America, listening to the voices of the pueblos and Earth.

 

SEEKING

by Lorraine Caputo

 
Waiting in long lines,
passing barefoot pilgrims
on the road …
I finally arrived here,
missing the low tide.
 
The high is quickly coming in.
I cling to leggings
as it foams around
the sea-worn wood,
the water rising, rising
above my knees,
before it ebbs away.
 
& finally to
the wider strand
where gulls & whimbrels,
cormorants rest,
waiting for the sea’s fruit
to wash ashore,
the sea’s rhythmic roar
as it rises
then breaks
silently, then creeping
up the glittering sand
& flowing back out,
rising, crashing
creeping & flowing
rising … crashing …
 
For kilometers I stroll
my prints disappearing
beneath that tide
 
I rest on a flotsam log,
listening to the sea,
watching pelicans fly low
across the pale-teal waters,
the wind rustling these leaves
on which I write this poem.
 
 
* * * * *

Lorraine Caputo is a documentary poet, translator and travel writer. Her works appear in over 400 journals on six continents; and 24 collections of poetry – including In the Jaguar Valley (dancing girl press, 2023) and Santa Marta Ayres (Origami Poems Project, 2024). She also authors travel narratives, articles and guidebooks. Her writing has been honored by the Parliamentary Poet Laureate of Canada (2011) and nominated for the Best of the Net and Pushcart Prize. Caputo has done literary readings from Alaska to the Patagonia. She journeys through Latin America, listening to the voices of the pueblos and Earth