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  • Laredo Riviera, and: [no toronjas]
  • Emmy Pérez (bio)

Laredo Riviera

I could love you all dayin the eye of a Laredo

swimming poolsky, ears under water.

Clouds can’t hearborder patrol’s canines

before they’re detainedbeside the river, our view

in that dusky almost stadiumlight. Two cities facing each

other. What is it to lovewithin viewing distance of night

vision glasses and guns, mudand the Republic of the Río Grande

museum? Tourists and churches,credit cards and elotes, we try

to forget our maquiladora conveniences,toast compañer@s and watch

Tejan@s dance, slide on sticky floors. Weimagine who lives with each other, who only

for the night. Euphoriamore ancient than any vow. Earth

is earth. And kryptonite,kryptonite. You and me, me and you. [End Page 169]

[no toronjas]

No toronjas      this drought.Creamy flower      blossoms arrive          late, no fruit.White like the pith      we once tore          with plump sections              from the peel.Nepantla where it is bittersweetish.

Nepantla      without        toronjasLike a season      missed. Youin a city      somewhere digging          car out of frozen              snow. Bed

      at nightfall. I withholdwatering toronjas like I withhold      my tongue, here

where it is sweetbitter-      sweet. I would          water them

              with                the slush              of your winter          thaw if you      too would onlyspeak. [End Page 170]

Emmy Pérez
Chicana
Emmy Pérez

Pérez, Emmy is the author of a poetry collection titled Solstice (Swan Scythe Press, 2011, 2nd edition). Her work has also appeared in the anthologies The Wind Shifts: New Latino Poetry; New Border Writing; A Broken Thing: Poets on the Line; and numerous journals, including North American Review; Mandorla; The Laurel Review; PALABRA: A Magazine of Chicano & Latino Literary Art; and Pilgrimage Magazine. She is the recipient of the Alfredo Cisneros del Moral Foundation Award and a CantoMundo poetry fellowship. She is also a member of the Macondo Writers Workshop founded by Sandra Cisneros for socially-engaged writers. Currently, she is Associate Professor at the University of Texas Pan-American in the Río Grande Valley, where she teaches Creative Writing and Mexican American Studies courses. In 2012, she received a University of Texas Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award.

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