Our poetry editor, Joe Pan, has selected a new poem by Peggy Robles-Alvarado for his series that brings original poetry to the screens of Hyperallergic readers. This week we have included a special reading of the poem by the poet.
* * *
At Michael Heizer’s “Levitated Mass” (2012) (photo by m-bot)
Teeth
María de los Ángeles Pineda is dreaming of teeth
half-jaws snapping at her big toe pulling the covers
forcing her to feel the cool mountain wind
she has always preferred her city of asphalt over houses build in mud
thousands of bits of enamel taunting from the kitchen table
chattering in her soup rage boiling over
gripping the noodles perfectly forming a floating number 43
the broth bitter
María de los Ángeles Pineda is finding teeth in her makeup
pastel yellow blue and pink slowly turning brown
like the skin of the young men she never wanted to date in high school
red like the sidewalks on September 26th when
the rebellious received last rites from a rainstorm
molars hiding in her shoes hopping into handbags
incisors teaming up dragging 43 blood-soaked book bags into her living room
the bags still warm
María de los Ángeles Pineda is reading a dream interpretation book
Teeth: imperishable, able to survive narco-inspired Iguala police bullets,
storytellers
of an otherwise unrecognizable body
Teeth: indestructible messengers of the dead, resist effects
of gasoline-driven fires and
Cocula mountain landfill decomposition,
hold treasures of information, make for
the best tattletales
Teeth: dirt and ash covered immortal remains of
43 Ayotzinapa Normalistas
doing exactly what they were taught to do
teach dissidence call Justicia
shift Guerrero into the hands of El Pueblo
obreros gritando
¡Ya me cansé!
Teeth: oracles,
telling their story for years to come
* * *
Peggy Robles-Alvarado is a tenured New York City educator, a 2014 BRIO award winner, and CantoMundo Fellow. She is a two-time International Latino Book Award winner and author of Conversations With My Skin and Homenaje A Las Guerreras/Homage to the Warrior Women. Peggy has been featured on HBO Habla Women, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, 2014 Voto Latino Power Summit, Poets and Writers Fifth Annual Connecting Cultures Reading, The BADD!ASS Women Festival, as well as other culturally notable venues. She has been published in Letras, by the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College, The Bronx Memoir Project, Luna Luna Magazine, Upliftt.com, Dealmas.net, and Sofrito For Your Soul. She is continuously creating and supporting literary events through Robleswrites Productions. For more information please visit Robleswrites.com.
