Latino/a Poets Roundtable
Cante Flamenco
Cante Flamenco
The bottom of my skirt opens and closes.
Waves of polka dots rise to my knees.
Silk ruffles turn to foam.
He kissed me on a summer night.
His mouth tasted not of garlic
or salt, but of wine and cinnamon.
I dream he takes my hand again
before we run up the hill to a church
that was once a mosque
and fly like kites at dawn to float
over the field where Federico died.
In men's hungry eyes: thoughts
clear as graffiti on church walls.
They want to touch my skin,
when what I long for is to dance only for him,
to twist and turn for him, arms lifted,
mantilla on the ground, chin up.
The day he left I buried my hunger
in a cave above Granada. If he returns,
my bed will freeze. The olive trees will burn.
The moon will comb her hair again.
I choose a blue dress now he's gone,
red shoes, and like a jaguar, crouch
on the edge of the map to wait for him.
All rights reserved. Reprinted with the permission of the author.
Born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia, Hope Maxwell Snyder received an MA in Spanish Literature from George Washington University, a second MA in Latin American Literature from Johns Hopkins University, and a Ph.D. in Spanish Medieval Literature from the University of Manchester in England. Her poems have appeared in Alehouse Press, The Comstock Review, The Gettysburg Review, International Poetry Review, OCHO, Redactions: Poetry & Poetics, and other journals. She is the founder of Somondo Press and the founder and director of the Sotto Voce Poetry Festival in Shepherdstown, West Virginia.
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At its core, Latino literature is about the tension between double attachments to place, to language, and to identity.
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A roundtable conversation with poets Maria Melendez, Raina Leon, Hope Maxwell Snyder, Albino Carrillo, Felicia Gonzalez, Mark Smith-Soto, Blas Falconer, Juan Morales, Roberto Tejada, Emma Trelles, and elena minor.